


Lost Sister

by thisisnotourlasthunt



Series: Home is where (found) family is [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Adoption, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fights, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, How Do I Tag, I dont know how to tag, I hate tagging, I suck at this, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Like it starts real cute and fluffy and whatsoever, Multi, OOC, Original Character(s), Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Andrew Minyard, Siblings, Soft Andrew Minyard, Soft Neil Josten, Soft Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Trauma, Violence, but then..., until it isnt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:54:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisnotourlasthunt/pseuds/thisisnotourlasthunt
Summary: A year after the events of The King's Men, Neil receives a call from the FBI telling him an unexpected and shocking news, they found a toddler in one of his father's hiding places and the baby looks just like Neil.
Relationships: Abby Winfield/David Wymack, Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Andrew Minyard & Original Character(s), Andrew Minyard & Renee Walker, Betsy Dobson & Andrew Minyard, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Kevin Day & Andrew Minyard, Matt Boyd & Neil Josten, Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten & Andrew Minyard & Original Character(s), Neil Josten & David Wymack, Neil Josten & Original Character(s), Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick/Erik Klose, Stuart Hatford & Neil Josten, The Foxes (All For The Game) & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Home is where (found) family is [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991581
Comments: 110
Kudos: 252





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Expect:  
> \- Lack of realism, not everything that will be written are going to be 100% real. For example, when gay marriage became legal, when gay couples could adopt, adoption process in general, how hospitals work, etc.  
> I know the books are set in the 90s-early 00's and this is 1 year after, but I didn't write it as in those years, I didn't even think of what year would the story be set.  
> Also, I realized way too late that I had forgotten that Kevin and Matt were the same age so, in this fic Matt is as old as the other upperclassmen.  
> \- Grammatical errors.  
> \- non-canon events  
> So, as I was writing this, I was thinking "When could Nathan get a girl pregnant and how old would the baby be?" So I arranged it and that's when I finally had my answer, Nathan and the mother had you know what while Neil and his mom were running in California, she was born either some months after Nathan killed Mary or during the time Neil was in Millport and by the time this is set, she is turning three. So I'll stick with that.(I'm probably wrong, but oh well...  
> Hope you like it! <3  
> I'd love it if you would leave kudos or your opinion on the comments.  
> If you think I should add, remove or change any tag, let me know.
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: Panic attack, Hospital - ICU, Mentions of Abuse

Andrew and Neil had decided that they would have a lazy day. Since the upperclassmen were gone, Aaron was with Katelyn, Nicky had gone to Germany for a couple of weeks and Kevin was spending father-son time with Wymack, Andrew and Neil had the house in Columbia all for themselves. After a quick make out session on the couch, they turned the TV on and watched their favorite show in silence. The silence gave Neil time to think about the past. Three years ago he was running with his mother from his father until she was killed by him. Two years ago he had grabbed an exy racket and ignoring what his mother had told him, he played exy, still cautious, until he was given the opportunity to play with the foxes. One year ago he stopped running and formed his family by choice, his father was killed, he made a deal with Ichirou Moriyama which gave him his freedom by a small price he was willing to pay and with his team, they won against The Ravens and Riko Moriyama. And what had he done with his first year of freedom? He lived. He spent as much time he could with the upperclassmen since it was their last year, he went on vacations, he taught the freshmen as co-captain with Dan, they won another championship, he showed Andrew how much he meant to him and most importantly, he ran because it was fun, not because he had to run for his life. It had been the best year of his life. 

A continuous buzz from his phone took him out of his train of thought. Without looking at the ID, he answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Neil?” A familiar voice said through the phone. “Its agent Browning.”

“Browning?” He repeated in stupor. Andrew, who was ignoring just a second ago, turned his head to meet Neil’s gaze, his brows were a little furrowed in confusion, but other than that he looked bored. “How did you get my number?”

“I’m from the FBI kid, it’s easy.” He sighed. “Look kid, I would love to tell you this in person but I know you won’t come here even if I tell you this is important so this will do. You might want to sit down” He suggested. He waited a minute before talking and when he finally did, the news he told Neil, weren’t the ones he had expected. “As you know, for the past year we have been looking through your father’s hiding places and we found one in California. We heard noises from the inside so we were prepared to find some of his people, but when we barged in we found a sickly woman with a sickly toddler on her arms.” He took a deep breath. “Neil, we believe the toddler is your sibling.”

“What?” Neil asked, his voice rough and in a whisper.

“The toddler is a mini you, same red hair and blue eyes, but we are not sure so we need you to make some blood tests. We need you to come here as soon as possible for this, but for now the toddler, being malnourished and small, is in the children’s hospital in the hands of the state and-”

Neil knew Browning was still talking but his own thoughts blocked his voice away. He could not believe it, Nathan had another child, would the toddler be traumatized as he had been? If it was his sibling, would he have to throw away everything and start running? Would the child live scared and looking at his back, afraid of someone approaching? Would the child grow up and get shot, causing him to be too scared to take the vest off? Was the child’s small body covered in scars and burns giving him nightmares? Would-

“Neil!” He heard Andrew yell behind him and a second later he felt Andrew's hand on the back of his neck as he pulled him to the ground and placed his head on his knees.

Neil could feel how he was hyperventilating, could feel his body shaking as his mind created the worst case scenarios, his feet yelling at him to run and escape, he could feel every scar that covered his body as if they were thumping. He held his hand out, a silent request for Andrew to take it and keep him grounded, Andrew took it right away and Neil squeezed it as hard as he could. After some minutes in this position, he finally could breathe again, as he opened his eyes and pulled his head from his knees, he discovered he was on the floor, a few steps away from the front door. He turned to look at Andrew and saw how he was trying to keep the mask on but Neil knew better, he had run to the door, ready to run until he was in another city with a new identity and appearance. He had promised Andrew he was done running, and yet he almost did.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice shaky. He squeezed Andrew’s hand for him to know he was serious and a few seconds later, Andrew squeezed too. “It’s just-” He tried to take a deep breath, but half way through, he almost choked on it. “Apparently, they found a toddler in one of Nathan’s hiding places and Browning said that they think she might be Nathan’s so they need me as soon as possible for a blood test” Andrew slightly tilted his head and lifted his eyebrows but he stayed silent, and Neil knew that he was hurt that Neil almost ran away, so he continued talking. ”My mind started creating the worst case scenarios, I don’t know what I was doing, I let my panic attack control me. I promised to you I wouldn’t run anymore, and I’ll keep it.” 

Andrew stood up, his hand still in Neil’s, and pulled him to his feet. Silently, they went to the living room, Andrew grabbed his car keys and turned the TV off. He took both of them outside and locked the house behind him, the only time he took his hand away from Neil’s was when they had to enter the car, but once they were both seated, he reached for Neil’s again. Neil gave him his hand and squeezed to reassure him he wasn’t going to run.

The ride was silent but comfortable, Neil was still overwhelmed with the big bomb that was thrown his way and Andrew was still a little affected from before, so the ride let them think and their interlocked hands kept them both grounded. As they were parking the car, Neil knew they would have to separate since both of them didn’t like the idea of showing affection publicly so just before he got out of the car, he lifted their hands and kissed the back of Andrew’s. “I’m staying with you.”

“145% Josten.” Andrew said before gently pulling his hand away as they got out of the car and Neil felt a goofy grin forming in his face. 

This was Neil’s first time in a hospital visiting a patient, and the first time he had stepped into one since after the events in Baltimore. Neil felt his nerves screaming at him to turn around and run, but he was not here for him, but for his supposedly sibling. Agent Browning met them at the entrance of the hospital and took them to an office to explain in more detail the situation privately. 

“Earlier today a searching group was sent to one of Nathan’s old hidings, this one was hard to find since it was only mentioned once in the papers he had in other hiding places. When they arrived there, they heard a ruffling and they expected to find some of Nathan’s people, but instead they found a woman and a toddler in one of the rooms asleep. The mother was really sick and hurt, the girl looked better than her, but she was still really malnourished. They got them both out of there and were taken to different hospitals. The mother was taken to emergency surgery because of her state but she died on the table. It seems that both of them had survived this past year on canned food and some dirty water they had. We suppose the mother would give most of the food to the girl, that’s why she is strong enough to survive, the love of a mother,” he smiled to himself and slowly shook his head before continuing. “Her state is really delicate, since they lived underground, she is lacking from many vitamins and minerals and her body will have to get accustomed to it. So far, she hasn’t woken up so the doctors had to place her in the ICU. Because of her state, we won't be able to do the test until she wakes up and gains a little bit of weight. The only thing we know about her is that her name is Natalie and she’ll turn three mid June.” Neil laughed to himself, of course her name would be Natalie, the feminine version of Nathaniel. “Would you like to meet her?” 

“Yes,” Neil said, he knew that they were not a hundred percent sure that they were siblings, but from what he had heard, he was sure she was. 

Browning took both of them to the hallway that read ‘ICU’ and took them to the first door. There, they were given a yellow suit and were told to put them on before entering, they explained that these suits would protect them and the patients on the hallway from entering outside sickness and protect them from the ones that were inside the ICU. Once they were ready, a nurse took them through various rooms until they got to room 1739. She opened the door for them, and they silently entered the room. The walls were plain white and with the white light, it made the room brighter than it should have been. On the inside, there was a crib, a gray couch and a TV hanging from the ceiling. Browning went ahead of them and stood beside the crib and ushered them forward. Slowly, both Andrew and Neil walked to the other side of the crib and the first thing Neil noticed was the toddler’s long fiery red hair. She looked extra small and skinny under the amount of cables that were connected to her and surrounded the crib, since she was only wearing a diaper, Neil could make every single one of her small ribs that made Neil feel a sudden pang of protectiveness towards her and as he looked at Andrew, he knew he felt it too. She had her eyes covered and he remembered that she had lived her whole life underground and probably the only light she had ever seen had been either an old lamp or a small fire, this made Neil hate his father even more than he already did. Carefully he rubbed his thumb through her hand, wanting to give her as much reassurance as he could while the nurse gave them more information about her health. As he was rubbing her hand for the second time, she caught his thumb and squeezed it so softly he barely noticed it, but when he did, his heart skipped a beat and right there and then he was sure he would fight for her. He looked over at Andrew, knowing that he saw their little exchange, and smiled widely, and he watched how Andrew let his mask down for a second showing that he was going to protect her too.

They had stayed at the hospital for an hour until visiting time was over but it was obvious both of them wanted to stay with her at the hospital, but Neil knew they had to leave her to heal. They were promised to receive a call as soon as she woke up so they could visit her. Back in the parking lot, Neil could still feel Natalie’s soft hand around his thumb as she used him for reassurance. Hours ago he had been scared of the idea of having a sibling, but now that he knew her, no matter if she was not his sibling, he would fight for her wellbeing.

By the time they arrived back to the house, it was late and they ate a small dinner before heading to different rooms, or at least that was what he thought until Andrew reached for his hand and pulled him to his bedroom. Neil gave him a questioning look that said _are you sure?_ Which was returned by a look that said _If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have pulled you here._ And that settled it, Neil took his shoes and jacket off and went to his place in the bed. He laid on his back and stared at the ceiling as he thought about Natalie. Seconds later, he felt Andrew crawling into his side of the bed and laid the same way as Neil. They stayed in silence for some minutes until Neil spoke up.

“I know this will sound stupid, but I want to fight for her. Even if the tests reveal she isn’t my sister. I-I don't want anything bad happening to her. She is still not three and she is so thin and _fragile_. She has been through so much already.” Neil said and he turned his head to look at Andrew.

Andrew turned his head too and looked right at the eye, “It’s not stupid.” That was all he said, but Neil knew that it meant that he agreed and that he wanted to do the same.

They stayed like that for some minutes until Neil reached for Andrew’s hand and once he had it, he fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Hospitals
> 
> Also, I don't know much about hospitals, so what I wrote about it may not be accurate.  
> Hope you like it, I really enjoyed writing this chapter.

Neil had a difficult time staying asleep, his mind pulled him back to the hospital in Natalie’s room. He would remember her poor state, how he could see her small ribs and how her small hand grabbed his. It had been as if she could sense that he would protect her. So sleep came and left for Neil, he had woken up various times feeling a buzz he thought it was his phone, but everytime he reached for it, he would find that it had not been real.

After his many tries to have a dreamless sleep, Neil gave up and opened his eyes, he turned his head to look at Andrew’s relaxed state. This past year, they had slept in the same bed a couple of times. At first it had been a little distressing for both of them, but slowly they learned that they were safe with one another. Now, they did it every now and then, but everytime it happened Neil couldn’t believe how much trust Andrew had for him. Neil, being an early bird, enjoyed this first couple of minutes seeing Andrew’s relaxed expression, his constant bored expression was replaced by the softness of his sleeping state, his clenched jaw that was constantly on a sharp way, now laid clear and elegant. A piece of hair brushed against Andrew’s eyes and Neil wanted to brush his fingers through it, but he knew his boundaries, so he stayed there staring at Andrew.

It could have been seconds, minutes or hours when Andrew started shuffling as he woke up. He squeezed their interlocked hands, that Neil hadn’t realized that they had been like that since the night before, and opened his eyes and met Neil’s gaze.

“Staring,” he said as he closed his eyes again.

“I know,” Neil whispered, not turning his gaze away. “I can’t stop thinking about Natalie,” he confessed after a while.

“Me too” was all Andrew said before both of them stayed quiet for a couple of minutes when suddenly Neil’s phone started ringing.

“Hello?” He says as soon as he presses the accept button, not caring to check the caller’s ID, he can feel Andrew’s stare, also anxious to know if Natalie woke up.

“Neil, buddy! How are you?” Matt says from the phone. 

Neil looks over at Andrew and shakes his head,  _ it’s not the hospital,  _ before answering Matt. “Everything is fine, how about you?”

“Is this a Neil-fine or what?”

“No Matt, we are good here. Why are you calling?” He says, keeping his temper cool, he has no time for this.

“Well, I just wanted to remind you that since Renee, Allison, Dan and me are out of Palmetto, we agreed that all of us would meet once a month at Abby’s. So, after checking calendars, we will meet up a week and a half, and tell Andrew he can’t say that he can’t come because of Nicky because I know he returns in a couple days.”

“Oh, alright, I tell him. Bye Matt, can’t wait to see you”

There was a silence in the other land and Neil thought he had accidentally hung up, but then Matt’s voice came back, sounding wrapped “Me too, bye Neil” and then they hung up.

Neil threw himself back to the bed. “Matt wanted to tell us that in a week we will have the monthly dinner and that you have no excuse to miss it because Nicky will be back in a couple of days.”

Andrew rolled his eyes and got out of bed, he looked over at Neil and after waiting some time he rolled his eyes “Out. We have to eat”

“But what if we are in the middle of cooking and-” Neil started rambling before Andrew cut him off. 

“We won’t be much help for her if we are starving,” Neil knew Andrew was right, so he sighed and got out of bed, phone in hand as he checked, for the first time ever, if it had full charge.

After they cooked breakfast, ate breakfast, watched two documentaries, had a make-out, showered, got changed and procrastinated a lot more, their anxiety was high. It had been over four hours since they woke up, ten hours since they visited her and almost twenty four hours since they found her and they were getting worried about her health, questions like  _ Will she ever wake up? Will she die? Does she have injuries and bleeding in a hidden place that will kill her?  _ and many more of this kind floated through their heads. 

They were in the middle of their third documentary, really, they were just staring ahead, not paying attention whether golden chains were better than silver ones, when Neil’s phone started ringing. Whilst Neil hurried to get the phone, Andrew muted the television and paid close attention to Neil as he accepted the call.

“Hello?” He asked

“Neil, Natalie woke up about an hour ago.” Browning said.

“Why didn’t you call earlier?” Neil demands.

“Because the doctors had to check on her first. Now if you want to see her, you should hurry up.” Browning said before he hung up.

“She’s awake” Neil tells Andrew, and as he turns, he smiles at Andrew who had his car keys ready.

“Before you enter the room you need to know that she is really scared, she’s never seen so many people and light in one place, so it's really confusing for her. Also, don’t be too noisy near her, an intern nurse entered her room abruptly and scared her off.” The doctor in charge of Natalie says as he gives them the yellow suits. “So far, we know that she doesn’t like loud noises, she doesn’t like being touched, or at least we haven’t found a way to. Found that out after we tried to change her diaper and it sent her right to crying. As far as we can tell, she either doesn’t want to speak nor walk or she can’t. We suspect that she only knows how to crawl, since that's how she’s been moving around in the crib.” He stops as they reach the door and turns to look at them. “We’ve tried to get her to eat, but she refuses to. We’ve tried letting her feed herself and us giving it to her, but she won’t open her mouth. If you can try to get her to eat, please do so, maybe she’ll do it for you.” Slowly and as quietly as he can, he opens the door and lets them through before closing the door again.

Slowly, Neil and Andrew walk to the couch beside Natalie’s crib, knowing better than to hover over her and scare her off, even if she is only two, it’s obvious she has boundaries and they know better than to cross them. So they get comfortable on the couch and Neil looks over at Natalie, she is sitting on the edge farthest from the door and she has the blankets pulled over her head trying to hide herself. He watches as she slowly lowers the blanket to look at her new visitors. When she meets their gaze, Neil’s bright blue eyes are met with hers, the white light of the room making them glisten, then she pulls the blanket over herself again just to lower it to look at him again some seconds later. She repeats this many times, each time meeting their gaze longer than the last time and pulls the blanket lower until she no longer does it and just looks at them.

Neither Andrew or Neil move as she inspects them and finally trusts them enough to crawl to the edge of the crib closest to them. The three of them stay like that for a couple of minutes until Neil knows that he can move without scaring her. Slowly, he reaches for the plate of food that was left after many tries to get her to eat. He grabs a spoon from the table and grabs a bit of the food. He turns to Andrew, who gives him a questioning look.

“Try it” he tells his quietly

“Why?” 

“Maybe if we eat it first, she’ll eat too. At least that's what I’ve seen on the movies Allison made me watch” he says confidently, though he really does not know what he’s doing.

“Fine. But only if then you try it too” Neil nods and Andrew takes his mask off and opens his mouth. Neil shifts positions so Natalie can see and puts the food inside Andrew’s mout. Andrew's eyes go wide as he forcefully swallows the food, obviously hating it.

“Come on, it can’t be  _ that _ bad,” Neil says as Andrew places the mask back on and grabs a different spoon and the food and spoons a bit for Neil. Obediently, Neil takes the mask off, and opens his mouth. He regrets it instantly. The texture of it is as if he were eating badly mashed mashed potatoes, and the flavor is horrible, it's a combination of sweet and salty, the bad kind. Neil makes a face as he forces himself to swallow it and once he does, he shivers. He places his mask back on and tries not to gag.

“Not that bad, huh?"

“It was horrible” he breathes and turns to look at Natalie who is smiling at their disgusted looks. “That’s funny for you, huh? But seriously, now I understand why you don’t want to eat,” he says calmly. 

Neil reaches for another spoon and spoons the food. Slowly he turns it to Natalie who without hesitation, opens her mouth and accepts the food. She swallows it slowly and once she’s done, she copies them and makes a face at the food. Neil chuckles and continues feeding her until she finishes the plate and she looks at them curiously with a small smile in her face, which Neil recognizes as one of his own, it's the smile he has everytime he feels safe around his family. But that smile was erased as soon as there was a tapping on the door. Slowly, trying not to scare her more, he stands up and reaches the door and opens it just a bit to look at the visitor. 

“Hi!” she says loudly making him look back at Natalie who has returned to the corner of her crib, but she’s not hiding from him, instead she’s looking at him and waiting for him to do something.

“Hi” he whispers. “What do you need?”

“Oh!”she says and lowers her voice a little, yet it's still loud. “I’m here to change her diaper, we tried some hours ago, but she wouldn't let us. I came to see if maybe she’ll be more willing.”

“I can do it,” he says and turns to look at Natalie a second, the only way she ate was after they showed her it was safe. An idea came to mind and he turned his attention back to the nurse. “By any chance do you have a doll?”

“A doll?” she asks incredulously. 

“Yeah, a small plastic toy in the shape of a baby” he says annoyed.

“I think we do, here, come with me,” Neil closes the door slowly and follows obediently. 

She walks him to the changing room and both of them take their suits off, he follows her as they walk to the elevator and she presses the button that says ‘lobby’ and follows her as she takes him to the gift shop at the entrance. He opens the door and looks through the isles inspecting the stuffed animals. His gaze stops at one of them and grabs it, he walks to the check out area and purchases it. He follows the nurse back to the ICU and they put their suits back on. When they reach Natalie’s door, he takes the diapers and thanks the nurse. Slowly he opens it and catches how Andrew and Natalie stare at each other, as he closes the door, Natalie scrambles to the edge until she recognizes him and crawls back to the stare off she had with Andrew. 

“Where were you?” Andrew asks, not taking his gaze away from Natalie.

“A nurse came to change her diaper, but I know that she wouldn’t want her to, so I told her we would. Then, I remembered that the only way we made her eat was when we showed her it was safe, so I asked if they had a doll, so the nurse took me to the gift shop and I bought a stuffed animal,” he explains.

Andrew turns to look at the fluffy fox stuffed animal Neil has in his hands and rolls his eyes. “Junkie”

“It was either this, a bear, a dog, a bird or a deer. Plus, this one was the fluffiest,” Neil defends.

“Whatever. Do you know how to change a diaper?”

“No, do you?”

“Yeah, I had to change some in some of my foster homes. Now, how do you intend to make this work?” Seeing that Andrew didn’t react negatively by talking about his time in foster care, he decides to ignore it.

“I was thinking maybe we could slowly approach her crib and put a diaper on the fox and to show her that it's safe.”

Andrew nods and slowly he stands up and stays still until Neil reaches his side and both of them slowly walk to the crib. At first, Natalie’s eyes widen and she backs to the edge a little. Neil and Andrew finally make their way to the crib, and slowly Neil shows her the fox and places it inside and grabs one of his paws as Andrew starts putting the diaper on the fox, showing her everything before doing it. Once they are done, Neil notices that Natalie had crawled forward, watching the fox intently. He hands it to her, which she accepts immediately and gives it a hug, and extends a hand to her. 

“Look, the fox has his diaper on, how about we change yours?” He asks, softly. 

He watches as she looks at both of them before slowly crawling to them and a second later, she lies down. She hugs the fox with one hand and lifts the other to meet Neil’s. Andrew slowly starts changing her diaper, showing her everything he’s using.

No one moves after Andrew is done, the three stare at each other until Natalie’s eyes start closing slowly, she pulls the fox closer before her breathing eases as she falls asleep. Gently, Neil places her hand to her side and watches as Andrew pulls the blanket over her. They stay there a couple of minutes, making sure she is in deep sleep before turning to walk towards the door.

They walk to the Nurse station where Natalie’s doctor is standing beside the nurse from before, both of them on their phones. “We were able to get her to eat and we changed her diaper. She’s asleep now, so be quiet if you want to check on her” Neil informs them.

“Thank you. We will call you tomorrow for you to visit her again. We will give her some medication so hopefully you will be able to do the blood test tomorrow or the day after.”

“What happens if they turn negative?” Andrew asks.

The doctor looks at his feet and sighs. “Since we don’t know who the mother was, and the FBI are searching for it, she’ll have to be placed in foster care until they either find who the mother was and if she had family, or if someone wants to adopt her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think about this? I really liked it. Hope you liked it and if you do don't forget to leave a kudo and/or tell me your opinion on the comments. When I see people really interested in the story, I write faster so if you want a quick update then, now you know how.
> 
> Also, I know I said it would only be a chapter a week, but I really wanted to post this chapter as soon as I can. Besides, it caught attention to a lot of people so why not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: Hospitals, foster care and adoption, mentions of Andrew's past (its just 1 and its small).
> 
> This chapter contains lots of soft Andreil, so enjoy!

The ride back home was tense and silent, neither of them wanted Natalie to go through foster care. Yes, some kids don’t go through horrible situations and most kids her age get adopted pretty soon, but they know that some children don’t get that lucky. Andrew is one of them, and because of that, neither of them will leave her life to luck. As soon as they get back to the house, they head to the backyard and Andrew immediately lights two cigarettes and hands Neil his. They smoke through two cigarettes without a word, Andrew offers Neil another cigarette but Neil shakes his head, and Andrew just shrugged and lit his third one. Andrew finishes his third cigarette in less than two minutes and starts reaching for a fourth one, that’s when Neil realized how affected Andrew is by the whole situation. 

“Hey,” he says to get Andrew’s attention. “We are not going to let them take her there, if the tests turn negative, then we’ll find a way to get her.”

Andrew does not respond, but he reaches for Neil’s pinky and interlocks them before taking one long drag from his cigarette. Once he is done with it, they head inside and without eating dinner, they head back upstairs to the rooms, but instead of going to the same room, both take a different room. It takes a long time for Neil to fall asleep but when he finally does, his dream is the memory of Natalie’s trust towards them. 

But sleep does not stay for long as he wakes up from the sound of Andrew’s door opening. Neil glances at his clock that reads that it's only three am, meaning that Andrew had a nightmare or better said, he dreamt he was back at one of his foster homes. Neil stands up and walks down the stairs to meet with Andrew in the kitchen as he starts boiling water for their coffee. An idea comes to his mind and heads to the kitchen table where the laptop is and turns it on, he starts searching for the information he needs.

By the time the coffee is ready, Neil has various tabs open and is reading through them. Andrew sits beside him and leans to see what he is reading and turns to look at Neil with a raised eyebrow. Neil knows that Andrew won’t ask, after he wakes up from a nightmare he remains silent until hours later and even then, he doesn’t talk much. So without the need of the question, Neil explains what he’s doing.

“If the tests turn negative, which I doubt by the way, she looks just like me and I can feel that she is my sister and that she is meant to be with us and I know you can also feel it, but just in case, I want to apply for foster care and if I get accepted, I want to apply for adoption. I don’t want to risk her life and leave her with people that won’t know or respect her boundaries and abuse her. I know it’s a lot to ask and that probably it will be a hard process, knowing my past, and I’m not going to force you to do something you don’t want, but I can’t imagine her being around strangers,” He explains. 

He does not want to pull Andrew into doing something that the people that broke him did all those years ago, but deep down Neil wants Andrew to join him with the process of fostering and adopting, but that’s not his decision to make, and he knows it.   
Andrew’s face is blank and unreadable, even for Neil, he expects Andrew to leave the room or punch him, but instead he scoots closer to Neil, close enough for them to feel the warmness of the other, but far enough so their skin don’t touch and moves the computer so he can read better. Neil bites down a smile and turns to look at the computer.

They read all the requirements and investigate the laws involved in fostering and adoption for hours until Neil receives an update from the hospital, they are going to move Natalie out of the ICU and they need them there to make the transition easier for her since they are the only people she trusts. They arrive at the hospital in record time and hurry to meet with the doctor, whose name Neil never remembers, and he hurries them directly to Natalie’s room. On the way, the doctor tells them that they were trying to take her out of the room, but she won’t give in, and they don’t want to distress her more than she already is so they called them in, guessing that they are the ones that have more probability of touching her. They are a few doors away when they hear a cry coming from the inside of Natalie's room and without hesitation, they hurry to the door. 

The first thing that Neil notices is that there are too many people inside, two nurses are over one side of the room talking amongst themselves as they stare at Natalie and there are two other nurses on both sides of the crib hovering over a terrified Natalie. Her face is red and tears roll down her tightly shut eyes as she tries to back away from the nurses, clutching tightly to the fox Neil had given her the night before. The nurses try to calm her down talking softly but Natalie just cries harder. 

The nurses stopped and turned to look at them when they heard the door close, which caught Natalie’s attention, probably thinking more nurses would come for her, she opens her eyes and turns her head to see her new visitors, Neil can see the fear in her small blue eyes, but once she recognized them, she lifted her free hand, the one that isn’t clenching on the fox, opening and closing it towards them with a little whimper. Without hesitation, they hurry to her side and Neil grabs her hand, she starts trying to get up and move closer to him, that’s when he realizes that she wants him to hold her, so carefully he pulls her into his chest. It’s Neil’s first time holding a child, at first he is a little awkward, but it seems that either she doesn’t mind or he’s doing a good job because as soon as he places an arm on her lower back, and the other on her neck, she hugs her fox closer and buries the back of her head into Neil’s neck as she watches Andrew, who is running his hand through her wavy red hair.

One of the nurses takes a step towards them and opens her mouth but Andrew stops her. 

“We need to take her to her room in the pediatric unit,” she explains.

“I know that, but can’t you see that she is scared of you?”

The nurse tries to speak again, but is silenced by a nurse on one of the corners that Neil hadn’t noticed before, she is the eldest one of the five nurses in the room and it looks like she knows that the only way they will be able to move Natalie out, is through Neil and Andrew. “How about if you help us?” she asks, but the way she says it, it's a command, not a question. “All you need to do is gently remove the tapes that keep the cables in place on her back and keep her distracted as I take her cannula out, she doesn’t need it anymore,” she orders them with a bored look. Most people would not like a nurse with this attitude, but as soon as Neil heard how she ordered them, he immediately liked her, he even lifted his head from Natalie’s hair a little to read her name on her badge ‘Bessy.’ Bessy, ushered the others outside and moved to the wall, giving them space and watched them closely. 

Neil gently moved the hand he had on the back of her neck, and slid it down her back until he found one piece of tape. He gently places his fingers on one of the edges and starts slowly ripping it off her back until he feels a quick vibration that passes through her body. He freezes thinking he had hurt her, but when the vibration comes back, he realizes she was laughing at something behind him. He turned his head to look at what had her attention and his heart melted at the sight, Andrew -whose face was in a bored expression, yet there was a little glint on his eyes exposing how much he was enjoying it- had grabbed her fox and hid it behind Neil’s right shoulder and a second later he revealed it from his hiding place and booped Natalie’s nose, which caused her to laugh again, Neil wanted to laugh himself, but instead Neil let his mouth turn to a ‘gooey’ smile -as Nicky would say- and turned his head back to where it was before remembering what he was supposed to do. 

Neil was able to take every piece of tape from Natalie’s back, Natalie completely oblivious about it since she was too focused on the ‘peek-a-boo’ game she and Andrew were playing.

Neil nodded his head once at Bessy to let her know that he was done. Slowly she walked to his left shoulder -the one that Natalie was not facing and luckily had her hand with the cannula rested in, and gently she tugged it. Even if she was careful, it caused Natalie to tense at the sting she must have felt, but Andrew continued playing with her as if nothing had happened and it seemed to work since she forgot about the pain and continued laughing.

“Alright,” Bessy says as she discards the cannula on the trash can. “Now that that is taken care of, we have to move her to the pediatric unit and from what I can see, the only way we can take her there is if you carry her there. When we get there, you will have to put her in a different gown. I think Doctor Roberts, Natalie’s new doctor, works in the pediatric unit and with special cases kids, I think you’ll like her, wanted to talk to you about something. Now, follow me”

Obediently, they follow her out of the room and through the halls. Natalie turned her head and buried her face in the crook of Neil’s neck, hiding from the people in the halls. They follow Bessy out of the Intensive Care Unit and into the elevator, thankfully they were the only ones there, being in a small space with strangers touching them and invading their personal space would surely be bad for Neil’s, Andrew’s and Natalie’s nerves, Bessy pressed the button for the third floor and not a minute later, the elevator doors open to a colorful wall. 

Whereas in the intensive care unit the walls were plain white and the only decoration they had were painting of landmarks, the pediatric unit walls were colorful. Every wall was painted to show a different magical world, the one in front of the elevator had a colorful forest, the trees were gigantic and hanging from a branch, was a cat with a gigantic smile, Alice in wonderland. The wall to their left side had a yellow brick road leading to a city the color of emerald color, The Wizard of Oz. And to their right the wall had a green plant that began from the floor and from the perspective it was painted, one could see how it grew until it was hidden by the clouds, Jack and the beansack. If that was not enough to make both Neil and Andrew want to flee out of there, what came next made them have to force themselves to continue walking.

The nurses from the intensive care unit wore simple gray gowns and the yellow suits, but the nurses from the pediatric unit all wore white based gowns, but they had different patterns. Cats, dogs, sports, ponies, food, animals, princesses. Bessy hurried them forward, she wants to leave this place as soon as possible as well, Neil thought. 

“Patient 2091, transferred from the ICU” Bessy said to the nurses in the nurse station before tapping the desk twice and leaving them with a smirk and a two finger salute, which made Neil like her even more.

“Hello!” The nurse said, loudly, her voice high pitched. “I’m Anna and this is?” she smiled and tried to touch Natalie’s arm, but Neil moved as if to adjust his hold on her.

“She’s Natalie. Where is her room? And we were told that a Doctor... What was her name Andrew?” Forcing himself to be friendly, Dan and Renee would be proud, he thought.

“Roberts,” Andrew said flatly.

“Thanks. Anyways, we were told that Doctor Roberts wanted to talk to us about something” Neil said, using the press smile that Kevin had taught him. 

“Oh yeah, follow me, I’ll take you to her room and I’ll call the doctor” 

They followed her through a hallway, whose walls were a plain white color, but were decorated with names written all over it, names of the children who were discharged and she took them through a set of doors that were labeled ‘from 0-3 years.’ The walls in this room were much simpler, they had a baby blue background and big round animals painted on them. They passed three doors, two of them were filled with cribs and one was a playroom, before they were taken to a small bedroom with a single crib, a bathroom, a wooden chair, a television, a small closet and a couch inside. Neil was so thankful Natalie didn’t have to share a room. The nurse went to the closet, took a gown and some diapers out and gave them to Neil before leaving, promising to bring them Natalie’s food and tell Doctor Roberts that they were there.

Once the door closed and they were alone, Andrew threw himself to the couch with a growl and placed an arm around his eyes.

“Seems like Andrew has seen enough color for a day, huh?” He tells Natalie while he sits on the couch beside Andrew and positions her to be sitting on his lap.

“For a day? This is enough color for a year” Andrew responds, Neil can feel the eye roll on his voice.

“Well, you will have to suck it up, in a couple of days we are going back to the bright orange court” Andrew growls which makes Neil laugh, which makes Natalie giggle loudly, it's the first time she giggles, Neil looks at her lovingly and sees from his peripheral vision that Andrew took his arm from his face to look at her. Oh, how fast she stole their hearts. 

Andrew gently tugs the fox from her hands and starts playing with her and Neil can’t believe how lucky he is for having Andrew as his boyfriend. Boyfriend. Neil would never get bored of saying that word, he could remember the night Andrew had said that whatever they had was indeed something. It was the night after they won against the Ravens and had the celebration with the foxes, Andrew took Neil to the roof and lit two cigarettes, he passed Neil’s his and they stayed in silence for a couple of minutes before Andrew finally spoke up.

“This isn’t nothing” Andrew had said, his voice not in the usual flatness, for anyone else Andrew would sound flat, uncaring, but Neil could hear through that and could hear the softness in Andrew’s voice. 

“What?” He had said with a grin, he had heard him pretty clearly, but he wanted Andrew to repeat it.

He knew Andrew knew he had heard it clearly, but he had repeated it. “This is not nothing, I don’t lie and if I continued saying that whatever we have was nothing, I would be lying.”

“But you still hate me?”

“I do”

“Yes or no?”

“Yes” They had kissed for hours, pausing only when they had to breath, and when they got back to the dorms, Andrew had given Neil permission to sleep with him on his bed.

That was Neil’s best night ever, not only had they won against the Ravens, Riko was shot by Ichirou and had given Neil freedom, and Andrew had said that what they had was indeed something.

A knock on the door took Neil out of the memory, Andrew took Natalie out of Neil’s lap and sat her in his, freeing Neil to see who was on the door. Neil hurried to the door and opened it, outside was a woman, she looked about thirty, she had shoulder length brown hair and piercing green eyes, she smiled at him, it didn’t look forced, like many of the other nurses looked like, but genuine.

“Hi, I’m Doctor Roberts and I was given Natalie’s case. Here,” she said as she gave him a plate of food. “It's almost noon and from what I’ve heard, Natalie does not eat unless you give it to her. May I come in? If Natalie sees you are okay with me being inside, she’ll be more trusting towards me, if not, then I’ll leave.” Neil considers a minute before letting her in, he sees how Natalie scoots closer to Andrew but watches Doctor Roberts.

“Hello,” she says calmly to Natalie -without changing her tone of voice unlike the other doctors and nurses, except Bessy- before turning to both Neil and Andrew. “My name is Molly Roberts, I studied psychology and pediatrics, most of the cases I’m given are from children who have passed through a traumatic experience such as abuse, neglect and more. I want to make something clear, Natalie is the one in charge here, I will not force her to do something she does not want to do, for now this is her safe space, if we need to do any tests on her, like the blood test we plan on doing today, we have to let her know its safe and that she has nothing to be afraid of.”

“You said blood test, are we doing the DNA test today?” Neil asks.

“That’s what we have planned, but as I said, I won’t forcefully insert a needle into her body if she doesn’t want to,” she repeats and Neil feels like he can trust her, she knows about boundaries, and that’s enough for him.

“Since Neil is also going to have his blood drawn, would it help if she sees that he is also doing it?” Andrew asks, turning his head to look at Dr. Roberts.

“In theory it should. Yeah we are going to try that. Now, I will be the one to draw the blood so she needs to know it's safe if I am beside her, then we will work on her letting me touch her arms. You can sit beside her, but I’d prefer if she isn’t sitting in your laps.” She says as she slowly moves the chair that had been sitting beside the bathroom door.

Neil went over to the couch and sat on the edge of it, leaving enough space for Natalie whilst Andrew gently lifts her and places her in the space between them, he hands her her fox and places his arm protectively against the backrest.

“Hello Natalie, how are you?” Dr. Roberts says in a normal voice as she settles in the chair. “I see you have a fox there, he looks nice, may I see it?” she asks, extending her arm a little, slowly. Natalie hesitates for a moment and looks at both Neil and Andrew before handing it. Dr. Roberts gently takes it out of her hand -carefully trying not to touch her shin- and looks at him, she moves it as if the fox was walking to her ear and ‘whispers’ something to her. “I see” she tells the fox and proceeds to make funny expressions that cause Natalie to smile.

Dr. Roberts played with Natalie for a while before proceeding to touch her skin. It starts with the fingers -just a poke-, then a handshake, until finally she touches Natalie’s forearm and when Natalie doesn’t move away, she smiles. “All right, I’ll be back in three hours, eat, play, watch some TV, rest, whatever. When I get back we will proceed. I’m going to place a ‘Do not disturb’ tag on my way out, that way you don’t have to worry about people walking in and out of the room, you can always lock the door, but this way no nurses will come and knock on your door. See you later” she says as she stands and leaves the room.

“That went better than I expected it to,” Neil said as soon as the door closed and stood up to lock it.

“It did. What’s this?” Andrew asks as he stirs the contents on the plate.

“Natalie’s lunch. Can you give it to her? I have to use the bathroom” Neil asked, to which Andrew responded with a flick of his hand as he spooned the food for Natalie.

After Neil came out of the bathroom, and Andrew finished feeding Natalie, they noticed the tired look in her eyes, so as quickly as they could, they changed her into the new gown and her diaper, always showing her everything they were using and what they were about to do. When they were done, they tried to leave her inside the crib so she could go to sleep, but as they stepped away, she whimpered and made reaching motions with her hands. Neil gave in and walked to the side of the crib, he took her in his arms and adjusted his hold on Natalie’s small figure -this time was easier than the first time, since she wasn’t trying to hide-. Once he was sure of his hold, gently he pulled her head on his shoulder, she didn’t fight about it, but instead, she rested her left hand on his shoulder and her right hand held her fox close. Neil carefully walked towards the couch and saw that Andrew was already seated, his body leaning against the arm rest.

“Yes or no?” Andrew asked, quietly.

“Yes” Neil responded with a smile. 

Andrew laid down on the couch, positioning his back against the arm rest, he had one leg extended along the couch and the other was on the floor giving enough space for Neil to sit between them. When he was settled he motioned for Neil that he was ready. Neil carefully sat on the space and slowly leaned into Andrew’s chest, careful not to make a false move that would startle Natalie, and once he made it to Andrew’s chest, he shifted his hold on Natalie, making it much comfortable for both of them. Andrew reached for the remote control and turned the TV on and made sure the volume wasn’t too loud and once he was done, he set the control down and placed his hands around Neil’s body to his hands and interlocked them around Natalie’s calm form. Not soon after that, Neil felt how Natalie’s breathing slowed to a steady pattern, letting them know she was asleep. Neil smiled and reached to kiss Andrew’s cheek -after more than a year since they had their first kiss, Andrew had told Neil he didn’t need to ask if it was a kiss on the cheek or for holding hands. Neil had beamed for days on end, knowing that Andrew had enough trust on him to let him kiss his cheeks and hold his hands without asking first (Neil knew when and were he could do it, so it was bonus points on his part)- Andrew leaned down so he didn’t to move much and then turned his head back to the movie. Neil smiled, it was a new experience, but he could get used to it since he is loving it already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, thank y'all for your comments, it makes my day and I love responding to them. So, I decided on which days I'll (try to) post, Tuesdays and Fridays, maybe I'll be off some Tuesdays, but Ill try to at least post every friday.   
> If you think Im forgetting any chapter warnings or I should change, remove, add some tags, let me know so I do it.
> 
> If you want to talk to me, give me some ideas, or give me some feedback, you came message me from my instagram @/thisisnotourlasthunt_


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think there are no warnings for this chapter.  
> This is a filler chapter so it isn't that big of a deal, but it sure does have important stuff.

The process of drawing Natalie’s blood for the test went pretty good. Since she had had a two hour nap -and had woken up in the arms of the two people she trusted the most- she woke up in a good mood, she was all smiles and quiet laughs. Not even when Dr. Roberts knocked on the door an hour later, ruined her mood. They had expected her to try to hide herself from her new visitor. Instead, at the sound of the knocking, she stopped playing with her fox on the floor and turned her head to see who her new visitor was. When Natalie saw it was Dr. Roberts, she waved her hand before turning her head to the fox again. 

Seeing that she was in a good mood, Dr. Roberts told Neil to sit Natalie on his lap so she could see what was going to happen. Obediently, he scooped Natalie from the floor and sat with her on the couch beside Andrew. When they were settled, Dr. Roberts called Natalie’s name to gain her attention and when she had it, she showed her the needle seconds before putting it on Neil’s arm, blood started pouring to the tube and Neil was surprised by it, it was the first time he saw his own blood, it was the first time he didn’t see it without an injury. 

When it was Natalie’s turn, Dr. Roberts told them that even if she knew what was happening, it would still sting and they had to distract her so she wouldn’t try to pull the needle out of her arm., Both Neil and Andrew were ready for any circumstance, Neil settled himself to get a hold on her legs and leave enough space for Andrew to grab her arms. It turned out that they didn’t have to worry, when the needle touched her skin, she flinched a little before turning to look at both Andrew and Neil -her mouth in the shape of an ‘o’- before turning her head back around and watched with an awe expression as the tube was quickly filled with the scarlet liquid.

Once Dr. Roberts was done, it was late in the evening so they played with Natalie for a while until her eyes started blinking heavily. Quickly they changed her diaper and got her bottle of milk ready and gave it to her. They once again tried to get her to fall asleep in the crib but she wouldn’t give in, so they sat in the same position they had been before. Not two minutes after that, she was in a deep sleep and they got ready to leave. Since they still weren’t Natalie’s legal guardians nor parents -and they were permitted to visit her because of the FBI and the fact that she trusted them- they had to leave Natalie’s room, but neither Neil nor Andrew wanted to wake her up if they made a false move (the truth was that neither of them wanted to go, they wanted to stay in the room and watch Natalie sleep until eventually they fell asleep too). But they knew they had to leave if they didn’t want to get in more trouble and their permission to visit her would be taken away. So as gentle and careful -and as slowly as they could- they got out of the couch and placed her in the crib.

“Ugh” Neil growled as he threw himself on the couch the second they arrived at the house in Columbia.

“What?” Andrew asked as he sat beside Neil.

“We have to pack,” Neil saw the furrowed brow in Andrew’s face he explained. “Remember? We have to head back to Palmetto before five am, Nicky is coming back from Germany and we promised we would be there to pick him up from the airport with Aaron and Katelyn -that are returning from Katelyn’s hometown, which means she will be talking about her nephew the whole day and before you try anything, you can’t kill her, nor threaten her with a knife.” 

“Of course I remember, I was just hoping that I was dreaming when we promised,” Andrew muttered.

It didn’t take long for them to give in and start packing, as much as they could hide it, they were excited to see their family again. Luckily, they didn’t have to pack much, most of the clothes were left after their nights out to Eden’s so whenever they stayed for the weekends, they didn’t need to bring clothes, but they had bought food and things to entertain themselves the whole weekend before they received the call about Natalie and since then, their days were now mostly spent in the hospital. So in conclusion, they hadn’t used much of what they bought so they had to pack all of it.

Together they went through the pantries and decided what they could leave and what they had to take out either because it's close to their expiration date or because they are already expired so they need to throw it away.

While Neil was throwing away some spoiled milk down the drain, Andrew inspected the food in the refrigerator, Neil got a thought. “I think we should tell Abby and Wymack -and Bee if you want- about Natalie.”

“Yeah. Imagine their faces if we suddenly appear with a two, three -we really should ask Browning when exactly her birthday is, mid-june isn’t enough information- year old toddler at their apartment?” Andrew replies. 

“They’d think we kidnapped her.”

“Or they would ask when did you give birth because heck, she is just like you -not only physically, but also in personality-. When the doctor drew you two’s blood, you both had the same awed reaction of seeing your blood in a tube, and what is it with you guys and foxes? I think I have never seen her without the damn fox since the day you gave it to her”

Neil smiled at that and shrugged, for Neil foxes meant safety, love, family, and that Natalie feels somewhat the same is something he never knew he wanted, and now that he’s got it, he never wants to let it go. “So are we telling them?”

“I guess, but only them, we will wait for the results before we tell the others. I know Wymack, Bee and Abby will probably be surprised and will help as much as possible, but how do you think the others will react?” 

“Nicky and Matt will most certainly tear up. Allison and Dan will try to buy everything a toddler would need and they would go for expensive stuff and Renee will probably try to stop them but internally she will be on their side so there would be no cause.” Neil shrugged. 

“I think the first thing Kevin will do is give her an exy ball or a little league exy racket. Katelyn and Aaron will most likely be shocked -being the most ‘normal’ of all of us- but they will get over it faster. You know what, if we ever go out and we have to choose who to babysit, let's agree it will be them.” 

Neil’s smile grew wider at that, over the course of the past year, -with the help of their weekly sessions with Bee- Andrew and Aaron had built a strong bond -they acted more and more as the brothers they should have been if the people in their pasts hadn’t fucked up- sometimes they would help each other out. 

Like the time Aaron had a bad nightmare -a month after his trial- he came to their bedroom around midnight and carefully woke Andrew up. Neil could still remember how scared and helpless he looked, his face was pale, his blond hair was sticking to his forehead with sweat, and he was shaking. Andrew saw that, because without a word, Andrew had scooted and had given Aaron permission to sleep beside him in his bed for the night. 

No one knew about it, they -or at least Aaron- didn’t know Neil had woken up by the sound of the door opening and had been witness of the encounter, Kevin was out on a ‘date’ with Thea so he stayed the night there and since now the bedrooms were only for three people, Nicky and Matt were in the other room fast asleep and didn't hear Aaron walk out of the room, and both Andrew and Aaron would most certainly not talk about it. Even Neil's and Aaron’s relationship had gotten better over that year, Aaron had apologized for what he had said and Neil accepted it. They still didn’t like each other, but they both knew that they would be there for one another if something were to happen.

“What?” Andrew turned to look at Neil since he hadn’t responded.

“Nothing. It’s just- I'm glad you and Aaron have formed a good relationship after so much shit. Also, I quite enjoy making plans for our future with Natalie.” He responded as he got closer to Andrew -totally not in a flirty way.

Andrew hummed a response and reached for Neil’s hand, pulling him closer. “146%. Yes or no?”

“Yes” Neil replied and let Andrew pull him close for a minute before gently pulling away and returned to the task in hand.

When they arrived at the airport, Neil was anxious and felt dirty. It was a little over a year since he stopped hiding stuff from his family, they knew about his father and the eight year long run he and his mother had made to escape the claws of his father, but they didn’t know about Natalie and he couldn’t talk about her, not yet, but the feeling of hiding it made his stomach twist. 

Not only that, but this was going to be the first time they didn’t visit her at the hospital. Dr. Roberts had promised to update them every two hours and that she would be the one in charge of her feeding and bathing, no one other than her was going to touch her unless Natalie let them. 

Neil now sat on the passenger seat trying to do some breathing exercises while he and Andrew waited for either a text from Aaron telling them he was at the baggage claim area or Nicky’s text that the plane had arrived. 

“Stop.” Andrew ordered and Neil followed, it was not the time or place to have a mental breakdown, he took deep breaths until his breathing went at a steady rate.

Twenty minutes later, Andrew’s phone buzzed from a text Aaron sent them. It said that he and Katelyn had just arrived at the airport and were in the baggage claim area. Slowly they made their way there and soon enough they met up with Aaron and Katelyn. Andrew patted Aaron on his back and -after a few seconds of hesitation- Aaron patted his shoulder back. Aaron acknowledged Neil with a nod whilst Katelyn brought Neil to a hug and gave Andrew a shy smile and a wave. 

They talked for a bit before they checked the time of Nicky’s plane arrival. Since they had an hour to spare, they decided to go around the stores at the lobby, promising to meet each other in half an hour. 

Neil and Andrew walked through various stores -Neil with a coffee and Andrew with a vanilla frappuccino. They knew most of the stores there, after many away games that required flying to get there, they had plenty of time to walk through the stores -it also caused Neil to get accustomed to the idea of walking through the same airport more than once-, but this time, they lingered through an area they had never bothered to go. The children’s area. It was the only place at the airport they had never entered -never had the need to, anyways- but now, with Natalie, they were strangely drawn into the hallways.

It was a peaceful walk, scanning the aisles of colorful and sparkly clothes and big fluffy stuffed animals. Whilst on their walk, they saw Aaron and Katelyn getting out -with shopping bags on their hands- of one of the baby clothes shops. Aaron’s lips were twisted into a small smile -one of those smiles you don’t even realize you have- as he listened to whatever Katelyn was saying at his side. The smile disappears as soon as they turn and meet their gaze. Quickly they approach them and at Andrew’s lifted eyebrows, Aaron explains.

“It’s for Katelyn’s nephew, his birthday is soon and I don’t want to appear at his party without a present. What are you doing here?” Aaron demands ignoring the loving expression Katelyn has.

“Looking” Andrew responds.

Aaron was about to reply but a buzz on both Andrew’s and Aron’s phone stopped him. It was a text from Nicky telling them the airplane had arrived earlier and that he was at the baggage claim. As quickly as they can -being less than 5’5” through a crowded airport it wasn’t too easy, but Andrew’s glare helped- they got to Nicky, who greeted Aaron, Neil and Katelyn with a hug and Andrew and him greeted each other with a palm on the shoulders, knowing better than to hug him.

“Hey guys! You will not believe it!” Nicky started. He talked through the whole ride to Abby’s -and now also Wymack’s (finally)- house, but Neil had not heard him, the whole way he could not stop thinking on how he would tell Abby and Wymack, but he could not find the right words.

“And then, we went to this park and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, I can’t wait to go back and maybe next time you guys can come too” Nicky ended up as they walked through the door. 

“Hey guys.” She told them before she saw Nicky “Oh, hey Nicky!” Abby exclaimed as he saw him and brought him into a hug. “How was Germany?”

“Amazing” he replied with a soft smile.

“I’m glad” Abby said with her motherly smile. “Now hurry inside, food will be ready in less than an hour. Kevin is on the living room”

Whilst Nicky, Aaron and Katelyn went to the living room, Andrew and Neil followed Abby to the kitchen silently, where Wymack stood by the stove. They stood beside the counter, Neil playing with the hem of his arm band and Andrew stood with his arms crossed against his chest and his bored expression. Abby had not noticed that they had followed her but when she did, she gave them a concerned look and tapped Wymacks shoulder to gain his attention. He looked at her confused and then turned his attention to them, his face turning from confused to worried.

“Are you guys alright?” she asked quietly, her concerned expression never leaving her face.

“I- uh” Neil started but he still couldn’t find the words. He shifted uncomfortably and looked at the ground.

“Neil? What’s wrong?” Wymack asked, his voice full of concern.

Neil was getting overwhelmed, how could he tell them? What will happen when he tells them? He could feel his heart trying to rip out of his chest, his breathing becoming unstable and his legs were yelling at him to run the hell out of there. He reached his hand for Andrew’s, who without hesitation, took his hands out of his chest and linked their pinkies together. It helped to keep him grounding, but he still had no idea how to tell Abby and Wymack.

In perfect timing, Andrew’s and Neil’s phone chimed, looking at the clock, he noticed that it was exactly two hours since the last update from Dr. Roberts. He unlocked his phone and smiled at the pictures. The first one was of Natalie, her mouth covered in food smiling at the camera with the caption ‘I fed myself today! 7am’. The second one was of a sleeping Natalie curled in her crib, hugging the fox close, the caption said, ‘Nap time. 8am’. Neil’s heart did a double flip and he realized he knew exactly how to tell them. He turned to look at Andrew who was looking at the pictures with a loving look and feeling Neil’s stare, turned to look at him and nodded. 

Unsurprisingly, it made Neil feel more confident. He took a deep breath and turned to look at Wymack and Abby who looked both confused and concerned, without a word he gave them his phone.

“Her name is Natalie,” he said as they looked at the phone, then at him and Andrew, then to each other for the second time. “The FBI found her and her mother in one of Nathan’s hiding places, unconscious and needed medical attention urgently. They suspect the mother was beaten and that they had been surviving on cans of food for at least a month. They also suspect that her mom would give most of her food to Natalie, so when her mom went to surgery, she was not strong enough and died on the table. 

They don’t know her name or what happened to her to be in that situation, so Natalie is an orphan, yet, since she was in one of my father’s places and she looks like me, they are doing DNA tests. We have been visiting her everyday since we found out about her and we both agreed that we would take her in if the tests say she is my sister and if they don’t we also decided we would apply for foster care and take her with us.”

There was a minute of silence between the four of them -though Neil had felt like it had been a lifetime- before Wymack let out a huffed laugh.

“Dam, Kiddoes. At first I thought you ran into some gang or you killed someone or both,” he said as he sighed.

“So, what will happen next?” He asked, nervously.

“We prepare,” Abby said, determined. “We get ready for every possibility. If the tests come positive, we get ready for her, we check what needs to be done, we buy everything she will need; If the tests come negative, then we fight. We investigate for anything that will help you guys get her custody.“

“I agree with Abby,” Wymack added. “We might have not met her officially, but just from the picture, I can tell she is a fox, and us foxes, we stick together, no matter what.”

“Also, if you wouldn’t have told me that she might be your half sister, I would have asked when the fuck you gave birth. She’s exactly like you and I bet they must act the same way,” Wymack said.

“Oh, they do. You must have seen their expressions when they saw the tubes filling with their blood. The same fucking awed expression,” Andrew said with a bored face and a flat voice, yet Neil could hear the relief in it. 

Not for the first time, Neil felt a twist on his chest and he smiled brightly. “Thank you,” he said.

Before Wymack and Abby could wave him off, his phone started ringing, he looked at the ID it was from the hospital. He mouthed the word Natalie before answering the phone and putting it on speaker.

“Hello? Is this Neil Josten?” The caller asked.

“Yes, that’s me. Is everything alright with Natalie?”

“Nothing’s wrong, don’t worry. I’m just calling to let you know that the DNA tests you took yesterday are ready. Usually we could tell you from the phone, but since the FBI is also involved with this, we will tell you in person,” She explained.

“That’s alright, we will be there in two hours.”

“Alright, bye.” 

He hung up and turned to look at Andrew, his heart beating rapidly. Andrew’s eyes were black with an emotion Neil couldn’t identify. 

“Hey,” Wymack said to gain their attention. Both of them turned to look at Wymack. “It’s going to be alright, we settled it, didn’t we? If it's positive, we get ready for her and if it's negative we fight for her.” Neil took a deep breath and nodded, determined. 

“I’m guessing you will not tell the others just yet?” Abby asked.

“No, we want to know the results first,” he admitted feeling a bit guilty.

“It's alright,” Abby said as if reading his mind. “Now hurry, call us with the results, we will tell the others you had to leave.”  
“Thanks,” he said right before he and Andrew ran to the door.

They had been escorted to one of the conference rooms the moment they arrived at the Pediatric unit. The nurse that escorted them had said that for legal reasons, if the police -or in this case the FBI- the results of the test couldn’t be said in a hospital room because it would raise flags to the parents there so they just followed her. 

The conference room they were taken to, was much smaller than Neil had expected, it didn’t look like more than twenty people could fit inside. The walls were white and there was a big wooden table in the middle of it with fifteen chairs around it, in the chairs sat three people, Agent Browning, Dr. Roberts and a middle aged woman. At the sound of the door, the three heads turned to them, Dr. Roberts gave them a smile and gestured to come forward. 

“Hello Neil and Andrew, you already know me and Agent Browning, this is Mrs. Brown from the Department of Children and Families. Please, take a seat” Dr. Roberts said. Neil shook hands with the woman and gave a single nod to Browning before they sat down.

“Alright, so here are the results for the test” Dr. Robins said as she took the envelope that sat at the middle of the table. Neil’s heart raced as she opened it and read through the pages. A sweet smile formed in her lips and she looked at them and the next words she said, made his heart do a double flip. 

“They are positive, Natalie is indeed you sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, totally didn't expect that, right?  
> Also, I know that so far there are no much action (Aka, reason to put Graphic Violence as a warning) but let me tell you, shit will happen. Next chapter Neil and Andrew are telling the others! They go baby shopping and some surprises will come so get ready!  
> Kudos and Comments are appreciated (especially comments since they give me life and another reason to not quit this fanfic) love y'll
> 
> if you want to talk to me, message me through my instagram @/ thisisnotourlasthunt_ 
> 
> Ps. The event I mentioned (Aaron sleeping with Andrew) was inspired by the fanfic: Hold me close.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Panic attack-ish, vague mentions of abuse (Drake, Lola, Nathan), Addiction, Vomit (mentioned), Hospital.
> 
> I know, it's the most warnings I've ever put on this and this chapter is a bit shorter BUT there is also fluff and softness I know you will like ;)

After the announcement, Neil called Wymanck and Abby to tell them the good news, but Neil’s happy and excited mood was transformed into a stressful one. The DCF agent -which Neil didn’t bother to remember her name- talked for hours about the legal side of their guardianship. Because Andrew and Neil were not married, only Neil could legally adopt Natalie, when he asked if he could adopt her, she told him that he would have to be on probation. In other cases, this would not be necessary, but looking at Neil’s background, it was obligatory for his situation. 

That was overwhelming for him and he thought that was all, but oh boy, it wasn’t.

Once Dr. Robins had to leave for her other patients and the DCF agent was gone, Neil and Andrew tried to head to Natalie’s room, but Browning stopped them.

“What is it?” Neil demanded.

Browning let out a sigh and pulled a case from his side and placed it on the table. He opens it and takes a batch of paper. 

“While we inspected the place, we found a notebook that was hidden behind some wooden scraps. We looked through it and discovered it was the mother’s diary, we suspect there is another one, but we haven’t found it yet,” Browning says as he hands them the pages. “You can read through them, we have the original notebook and an extra copy. Usually we wouldn’t give evidence to the public, but knowing you guys, you would likely threaten us to read it so after a while my supperiors gave me the green light to give you a copy. Before you ask, yes, you can tell your dear foxes, we know neither they nor you will talk.”

Neil never thought there would be a day he was thankful that a FBI agent knew him and his family so well, yet here he was.

“Look, I’d prefer for you to read it anywhere else but a hospital where there are children in every room, So p-” Browning thought better of it and changed his words. “So, I’d be thankful if you read it in your house where you can destroy anything you want. I’m going to be honest with you guys, what those pages contain almost made me throw a vase. Just- be careful and tell no one, alright?” Browning waited until both Neil and Andrew nodded before leaving the room.

Oh no, Neil thought. He sent a look towards Andrew, whose eyes had turned black and distant, his jaw was tensed. Neil knew that he was thinking of his past, how he would cry for help in the dark with no replies, as he was abused. Neil’s own mind was surrounded by the memories of his father’s abuse, how he would lock him in the basement for Lola’s entertainment, he could remember the time he was seven and had moved too much, how he felt his skin melting from the steaming iron. 

He wondered what had happened to Nataie and her mom, Nathan had been caught by the police and was in jail by the assumed date of Natalie’s birth. But his father didn’t work alone, he had followers, and maybe they were the ones that beat them. That made sense, while they waited for Nathan's commands, they must have gotten bored so they used the first people they saw to entertain themselves before new orders arrived.

Before Neil could go deeper in his thoughts, he shook his head. He was Neil Josten, starting striker of the Palmetto Foxes, number ten, he had something with Andrew Minyard, he was family to the foxes and now, big brother of Natalie.

He finally could breathe again, but glancing at Andrew, he had not yet escaped the darkness of his mind. Neil moved to be in front of Andrew’s eyes, which were looking at the opposite wall distantly, careful not to touch him. It took a while for Andrew to come back, but when he did he reached for Neil’s hand to ground himself. Neil took it and slowly brought it to his lips to kiss the back of Andrew’s hand.

“Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s go check on Natalie.”

Neil had learned that what made Andrew feel better was when he was sure his loved ones were safe. When they crossed the door, Neil went for a smiley Natalie and brought her to his chest and kissed her forehead before passing her to an expecting Andrew. 

Andrew carefully checked her, he went to the newly installed changing table and carefully worked on changing her diaper whilst looking for any sign of abuse. Oblivious of Andrew’s cautious check, Natalie smiled sweetly at Andrew and chuckled when Andrew ran his hand through her belly and back searching for any transparent scar. Once Andrew was satisfied with his search and didn't find any trace of abuse, he scooped her into his arms and held her close, Natalie, new to being held this way by Andrew, gave him a toothy grin, placed her little hand on Andrew’s cheek and laid her head on his shoulder. Andrew’s eyes went wide as he looked at her, his lips curling into a tiny smile, one that Neil wouldn’t have noticed if he didn’t know him so well.

Neil couldn’t help it, he took his phone out and -without Andrew noticing since he was too concentrated on the toddler in his arms- took a picture of the scene in front of him. Knowing better than to disturb them, he sat on the couch and started searching on the internet for what a toddler Natalie’s age needed.

It didn’t take long for Andrew’s legs to start getting tired so he walked for the remote control, swiftly sat on the couch without bothering a dozing Natalie and changed channels to something worth watching. After a while he carefully as to not wake Natalie up, he leaned his head on Neil’s shoulder and intertwined their hands together. At that moment, Neil left the phone on his lap and opted to run his fingers through Andrew’s hair.

Neil was so invested in watching Andrew with Natalie that he had forgotten that they had to return to Wymack’s until his phone rang, causing Natalie to stir, making Andrew send Neil a look. Neil scoffed at him but left the room to see who was calling and decide whether or not to answer. It was NIcky. He answered.

“Neil! Where are you guys? You missed lunch, are you coming for dinner?” Nicky asked as soon as Neil accepted the call. Neil noticed the small slur on his voice meaning that he was drunk.

“Nicky, give the phone to Kevin,” Neil deadpanned, rolling his eyes.

“So bossy” Neil heard the faint noises of Nicky passing the phone to Kevin.

“I didn’t drink Neil, I promise. Dad was here to make sure of it. Besides, I promised you and Andrew, I value my life enough not to break a promise from Andrew.” Kevin said. 

When the news about Riko’s supposed suicide got out, Kevin demanded Neil to tell him the truth, Neil told him how Ichiorou was the one that killed Riko. Kevin did not take the news well, he drank so much that night, Neil had to make him vomit and was taken to the hospital. After that, he promised that he would stop drinking, but less than a week later -When he received an invitation for Riko’s funeral- he got drunk again. 

Andrew had had enough and made him a deal, he would stop drinking unless Andrew gave him permission to -aka, special occasions- and Andrew would join him in his night practices with Neil. Kevin accepted right away.

“I know Kev., Look, we-”Neil started before he was cut off by the perfect timing of the hospital’s speaker.

“Doctor Paz, you are needed in the emergency room 5. Dr. Paz, you are needed in the emergency room 5.” The speaker said, Neil cursed internally.

“Neil? Why are you at the hospital?” Kevin asked.

“What?” Nicky said behind Kevin.”Are they in trouble? Why am I even asking, of course you are in trouble.”

“Look, everything is alright. I will explain everything when we get back. Kevin, make sure everyone is sober by then and see if Matt, Dan, Renee and Allison are up for a call,” Neil said before he hung up.

Neil stayed outside for a second longer, giving Andrew a bit more time alone with Natalie, but when he opened the door, Andrew was laying pulling the blanket on top of Natalie. Once he was done, he turned and reached for Neil’s hand.

“Renee, Allison and Matt can take a call whenever, Dan’s shift ends in half an hour and she’ll be back to Matt and her house in an hour.” Kevin stated as soon as they arrived back at the house.

“Are they sober?” Neil wondered.

“As sober as they can be, I had to lock the cabinet. Can you explain to me why Abby was crying some hours ago? What did you do this time?” Kevin said as he put a hand in front of Neil, stopping him -it was meant for both Neil and ANdrew, but Andrew just skittered around it and went to the kitchen-.

“I will explain everything as best as I can,” Neil sighed. He had no idea how he would tell them, Wymack and Abby were the easy ones, Neil knew how they would react, the others…. Well, he wasn’t sure, but he knew that they would be on their side. 

Kevin looked skeptical, but he shrugged and made his way to the living room whilst Neil went to Wymack.

“Hey kiddoe, what’s wrong?” Wymack said as he stirred something on the stove.

“I don’t know how to tell them,” he answered truthfully.

“Look, they’ve been with you through so much shit the past couple of years, I don’t see how a toddler could make them turn against you. I know that the head of yours sometimes believes that we will leave and forget you, but whether you like it or not, you are stuck with us, you are a fox, just like Natalie will be part of our family,” Wymack reassured. 

Neil nodded and went to the living room, he sat besides Andrew and felt eyes on him.

“I am saying nothing until we are on the call with the others,” he stated.

They stayed in silence until they received a text from Dan that she was home already. Neil felt his heart trying to escape his chest as the other foxes connected to their skype call, questions and doubts floating around in his mind but before they could win over him, he felt Andrew’s hand pressed against the back of his neck. Neil took a deep breath and looked around the room, ignoring the concerned expressions -and a bored one- from his friends and looked at Abby who had her proud-mother smile. He turned to Wymack, who nodded at him encouraging him.

Neil took a deep breath and sent all of them a picture of Natalie. He saw how all of them checked their phones once they received the image, he saw how their expressions changed from concerned to confused.

“Her name is Natalie and she is my sister. Before Nathan killed my mom, he had another child -well, according to my math, she was born when I was in Millport-. They found her and her mom in one of his bunkers, the FBI supposes the mom was beaten and since no one had come to see them, they lived from canned food for at least a month. When they were rescued, they were taken to emergency but the mom died, she had given most of her food to Natalie so she could survive, so when they took her, she was too weak and died. 

“Since they didn’t know who the mother was, since they had found her in one of my dad’s places and she looks like me, they called me and did some DNA tests which came positive so I will be her legal guardian until either I legally adopt her or they find any other relative who is willing to take her. The latter would mean lots of lawyers because I want to adopt her.” Neil babled as he fidgeted with Andrew’s fingers.

After a long and eternal minute, he looked up. Nicky’s eyes glistened with tears as he stared lovingly at the picture of his phone, Katelyn was silently crying whilst Aaron hug her, Kevin was shaking probably thinking what Neil had been also thinking about ‘What will Ichirou say’. 

From the computer screen, he could see Matt’s teared eyes as he looked up and down at both Natalie’s picture and Neil, Dan looked at the picture with a determined look, the one she only gave to the foxes. Renee was smiling at Neil’s direction, yet he knew it was also to Andrew and Allison was typing on her phone rapidly.

“Allison, what are you doing?” Neil asked.

“Investigating what a toddler her age would need. You said Millport right? That’s three years ago so…” she drifted off as she continued typing.

Neil turned to look at Andrew whose slightly wide eyes of amusement ruined his calm face. Andrew turned to face him and pressed his hand a bit tighter with determination, Natalie was officially a fox, no one would try to take her away without all of them fighting. Oh how much he loved his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank y'all for 100+ kudos and almost 1k Hits! I honestly didn't know if anyone would like this story but I guess I was wrong.
> 
> Did you like that Andrew/Natalie scene? I loved writing it ngl.  
> And the foxes reacting to the news <3<3
> 
> Next chapter will be um.... not so nice, we will see what Natalie's mom wrote on that notebook.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are appreciated and well cared of, subscribe so you don't miss any updates and see you on the comments or on Tuesday. Kisses!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mentions of abuse, rape, periods, blood, cuts.

The foxes were excited, to say the least. After their initial shock, they started asking questions about Natalie and talked amongst themselves on what she would need and where they would place them in their dorm. It was decided that Allison and Nicky would be designing a small space of the bedroom for all of her stuff, Renee, Dan and Katelyn -Neil was surprised Andrew didn’t say anything about her helping- would buy the stuff and choose a color palette, Matt, Kevin and Aaron -again Neil was surprised, he didn’t think either Aaron or Kevin would help- would be moving the things up to the dorm.

After that, they talked about how the (ex)upperclassmen were adjusting to their life outside of Palmetto. Renee and Allison had bought a home in Boston whilst Dan and Matt had found an apartment in New York close to Matt’s team court. They talked until midnight, even though the past years they hadn’t been together for summer, it was different since those past years they would be returning to the fox tower in the last week of June and they would train together, but this time the upperclassmen wouldn’t be back, instead, a new set of freshmen would be taking over their spots. Last set of freshmen were alright- for the exception of Jack and Sheena those two can go fuck themselves-, but they weren’t close to them.

By Midnight, the other foxes said their goodbyes and went off to bed whilst Neil and Andrew went to the rooftop with the batch of paper Browning had given them. They sat on the edge of the roof, shoulders touching -they didn’t know what those pages could contain, so with their touching shoulders, they could ground themselves if it got really bad. Neil felt like the batch of paper in his hands were a time bomb ready to explode as soon as they started reading. None of them knew what they would find between those pages, but they were sure they wouldn’t like it.

Neil took a deep breath and started reading.

**_(Warning, this following part contains mentions of abuse, period and sex (kinda rape(?) (you’ll get why the question mark soon)), they are going to be a little detailed (not too much, but enough) so beware, you can skip everything with Italics if it is too much, but various parts of these will be mentioned further in the story. Also, the following “pages” will be the ones that contain the most important facts/details for the following chapters, so there will be some empty spaces, but you can deduct what Nathan did.)_ **

_ My name is Raquel Wilson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut.My name is Raquel Wilson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut. My name is Raquel Willson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut.My name is Raquel Willson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut. My name is Raquel Willson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut. My name is Raquel Wilson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut. My name is Raquel Wilson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut. My name is Raquel Willson, I’m twenty-five years old, my parents’ names are Dana Garcia and Richard Willson, I have a dog named coconut. My _

_ Why me? _

_ I don’t know how long I’ve been here, I don’t even know what day it is. Every once in a while, someone will throw me food and water before locking the door. The last thing I remember was sitting at the kitchen table with my parents eating dinner. I was really tired so I excused myself and went to bed. When I woke, I was not in my room, but instead in this basement. I tried screaming for help, but instead of a savior, I was rewarded with a smack hard enough to make me fall to the floor, where I stayed paralized, after that I haven’t talked.  _

_ I found this notebook on the ground beside old newspapers, most of them had stuff circled or highlighted. I know that this is probably stupid, no one will get to read this, if my captors find out I’m writing about them, the consequences will be big, and by the time someone finds me, I’ll probably be dead by then.  _

_ Dead, huh, I always thought I would find the love of my life, start a family with them and die of old age. I even had names picked, Sophie if I had a girl, Alexander if I had a boy.  _

_ Now, I have accepted my doom. These people are obviously not looking for money, they want to make me suffer, see me in pain, hear me scream.  _

_ But why? I haven’t done anything, I had just finished my last year in college, I was looking for an apartment to move out and search for a job. I was a no one, a couple of friends, no boyfriend.  _

_ Why me? _

_ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ _

_ \- .... . .-. . ... _

_ He hurt me. _

_ The past couple of food deliveries, a man with piercing blue eyes and auburn hair would enter the room, look me over and send the man that always stood beside me to beat me. Bruises that hadn’t healed yet, were punched again for the sake of hearing me scream in pain. Once, I fainted because of the excruciating pain and they threw me icing cold water and continued hurting me. _

_ Today was different, the man with blue eyes and auburn hair came alone, he had a knife on his hand and a smile plastered on his face. I thought he was going to set me free, but as he got closer, I noticed that the smile he had didn’t radiate safe and happy vibes, instead it was evil, like he was enjoying my fear.  _

_ “Now that you are mine,” he whispered in my ears as he pressed the knife in my arm,and I felt as a hot liquid spilled out of the wound.  _

_ I tried to move out of his grasp, but he grabbed me from my shoulders pulling me close to him. “Beg me to stop,” he said as he cut me once again. _

_ “Please” I choked out, my voice rough, after days of not speaking. _

_ “Louder!” He yelled cutting me a third time, _

_ “Please!” I said as loudly as I could, but it wasn’t enough I guess because he pressed the knife harder into my shoulder blade. _

_ “PLEASE! Please stop, please stop please stop” I begged. _

_ The man laughed and threw me to the ground. “Remember, now you are mine and I can do whatever I want to do with you and you must do what I say, understood?” _

_ I nodded fastly as tears ran down my face. _

_ “Good, now stitch yourself” the man said as he threw me a box. _

_ I tried, but everytime I moved my arms, a searing pain would go through my body. The bleeding had stopped and I was able to somewhat stitch my left side, but I couldn’t with the pain and left it there. _

_ I don’t know why I continue writing in this, I guess it's a way to keep sane in this situation. I don’t know if its stupid or not, but it feel right to write what’s happening.  _

_ He’s back. _

_ What the hell just happened? _

_ He was  _ nice  _ to me. He said he was sorry, and that he let his emotions control his anger. He told me that he was looking for his wife that took his child from him.  _

_ “I’m sorry” he said as he approached me with a towel in hand, he rubbed it against my wounds cautiously. “I’m really sorry, I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness but it's just” he had sighed and sat beside me, his face full of sorrow. “I have a son, his name is Nathaniel, and I loved him so much. He started playing this sport called exy and I got him the chance to train with the man that created the game, there were two other kids in his watch, he was forming the perfect court, and Nathaniel would have been part of it, if it weren’t for his mother. _

_ You see,” he snivelled. “Nathaniel’s mom took him and five million dollars away from me seven years ago, and I’ve followed them, every place they went. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Spain and here in the US. Today I saw my boy and his mother, and I tried to talk to them, tried to make them come back, but they ran away from me.” _

_ I don’t know why, but I felt bad for him, he really wanted his son back. I know I know, he did hurt me but he was just mad and I guess he had wanted to visit for another reason but his emotions got the hang of him. _

_ “I'm sorry.” I told him softly. _

_ “Oh no, don’t, it’s not your fault. I should be the one to seek forgiveness, not you.” He replied softly and ran a hand through my tangled brown, curly hair. “Can you forgive me?” _

_ “Of course.” I told him, I didn’t want to make his day worse.  _

_ He leaned to me and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek before standing up and leaving me to my stupor. The kiss tingled my skin and I felt myself smile. _

_ I’m making this promise to myself as I write this down, if he ever needs to let his feelings out, then I’m here for him, even if I end up hurting and bleeding, I’d do  _ anything _ for him to kiss me again. _

_ ~*~*~*~*~*~ _

_.- ... . -.-. --- -. -.. _

_ I love him. _

_ It took me a while to figure it out, but I'm sure of it by now. After he lashed out today, he helped me get cleaned up and said he was sorry, but that he still couldn’t find his son, Nathaniel, and he was angry at his ex-wife, Mary. I assured him that I was not mad at him and that I forgave him. He pulled me close to him, and I expected a kiss on the cheek, but he kissed me on the lips. I’ve never felt like this before. It was magical and it made me forget about the pain in my joints from the bruises and the cuts. He kissed me with such fierceness I felt like I was melting in his touch.  _

_ He kissed me with an urge, as if I were the only thing in the world. I was a bit uncomfortable at first, I hadn’t expected it, but the longer the kiss continued, the more comfortable I got with his lips against me. I tried to return the kiss but he pulled away and left me in the room to get control over my feelings. _

_ I love him so so much. _

_ ~*~*~*~*~*~ _

_ -. --- - . -... --- --- -.- _

_ I just had  _ sex  _ with Nathan-fucking Wesninski! I mean, he did force me to do it, I was nowhere near to want that, but he was so stressed with something that I gave in. _

_ “Come here” He had snarled, scaring me since I was taking a nap, but I walked to stand in front of him.  _

_ His blue eyes shimmered with an emotion I have never seen before in him so I got ready for a beat or cuts but instead, he pushed his lips against mine and pushed me to one of the walls. He kissed me stronger than he had ever kissed me before.  _

_ He slid his tongue into my mouth and ran it through my teeth as he slid his hands to my butt and squeezed it hard enough I knew he had left lunar marks from his nails but at that moment I didn’t care, having him against me was enough. _

_ A few minutes of intense kissing he slid us to the ground and, lips still against each other, he unzipped his jeans and pulled my pants off. I wanted to protest, I didn’t want this, I wasn’t ready, but he didn’t care. It hurt the first minutes but I figured it would hurt less if I stopped resisting so I let him. Besides, if he wanted this it was because something big happened and he needed someone to let it out and I love him too much to stop him from his relaxation, so I let him. _

_ Was it magical as I’ve been told it is? No, if I thought the first minutes hurt, the aftermath hurt like hell. _

_ Was it worth the pain? Yes, it made Nathan calm and that was enough for me. He even told me what happened. Apparently, he got close to getting his son back, but they escaped at the last minute.  _

_ I’ve wondered, why would someone do that to someone as loving as Nathan? Every cut or bruise that he makes is with love, the scars are a permanent demonstration of his love. Why can no one get that? At least I get it and that's enough. _

_ ~*~*~*~*~*~ _

_... --- .--. .... .. . _

_ I’m pregnant! Or at least that's what I think. _

_ This past month I’ve been counting the months with my period, the weeks by Nathan’s visits and the days with the food deliveries. I noticed that they serve me twice every day, and every fourteen sets of food, Nathan will come and either let the man from the first days hit me or hit me himself, followed by tender kisses. _

_ The point is that it’s been a hundred twenty four food deliveries, nine of Nathan’s visits and I havent had my period. I’m telling Nathan today, I think he will be excited, now when he gets Nathaniel back, he will now have two children to love, _

_ He was not happy _

_ “Hey!” I said when he arrived. _

_ “We have talked about this, darling, stay quiet and let me do what I want with you, then you talk” bellowed. _

_ “I know, it’s just, I think I’m pregnant!” I announced cheerfully. _

_ The news was received with large cuts on my torax, not deep enough to cause the baby any damage, but long enough for blood to pour down from it. After that he said he was sorry and that he was still too messed up thinking I would disappear like Mary did and that he loved me so much and didn’t want me to leave him, that he’d die if I ever did that. _

_ Then, he spent a long time kissing my belly, murmuring the names he had for them. Nathan is it was a boy and Natalie if it was a girl. There went my wish to call my children Alexander or Sophie, as long as he is happy, so will I be. _

_ ~*~*~*~*~*~ _

_... .- ...- . .... . .-. _

_ Welcome to the outside world Natalie! June 17th. _

_ ~*~*~*~*~*~ _

  
  


Andrew and Neil had enough, they were able to read those entries which titles had words instead of numbers, which were probably dates, and they had enough. They didn’t even get to read half of the pages, those six entries they were able to read were enough for their memories, they pulled them into the dark side and made them remember every abuse they went through. 

Neil tried to pull himself out of it reminding him who he was, that he no longer had to run, that his father was dead and no one would come for him. It took him at least an hour to get back from the darkness in his head. 

He turned to look at Andrew, who stared at the pages in front of them as if he could burn them. Neil wanted to assure him that everything was alright now, but it wasn’t. Natalie’s mom, Raquel, had to go through both of their nightmares and she died in the end. He went to his phone and searched for the image of Andrew and Natalie, he sent it to Andrew’s phone. The latter, at the sound of his phone, blinked as he got back from the place his mind took him and lifted an eyebrow when he saw it was from Neil.

When Andrew unlocked the phone, he stared at the picture and Neil saw how the tension in his shoulders eased up. His eidetic memory taking him to a happy memory rather than the most horrible ones. After a while, Andrew took two cigarettes from his back pocket and lit two of them, handing Neil’s his.

Neither of them really care for the nicotine, they didn’t smoke for that, but rather the effect it made to them both. For Neil, it was a calming and reassuring smell and it made him remember the many nights on the rooftop kissing Andrew until his lips were sore. For Andrew, it kept him grounded and whenever he was distressed, he could take deep breaths.

They stayed on the rooftop until their cigarettes ran out and they finally got back to their shared room. Suspecting that the next day wouldn’t be a good day, they laid on the bed as far from each other as possible, but not so much so that they had a little comfort when the nightmares came for them.

It took a while, but they fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uuuuuggghhhh, not my best I know, but it was HARD writing this and if I could (which I can but it wouldn't make sense with further chapters) I would have probably not written Raquel's POV, but I PROMISE it has to do with the main conflict in the fanfic, so it had to be there you know.
> 
> As always, I love when you give leave kudos and comments so please do so.  
> Subscribe so you don't miss any new chapters :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Collateral damage from reading Raquel's diary and some fluff ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: implied past abuses, child neglect, bad days, nightmares.
> 
> Reminding everyone that in this fic Matt is the same age as the girls.

The next morning started hard for both Neil and Andrew, their night had been restless, the memories that clogged their thoughts restrained them from waking up until Neil’s alarm turned on. At the sound, both of them bolted awake, whilst Neil sat abruptly, Andrew justy opened his eyes but remained silent and unmoving under the covers of the bed. 

They stayed in the same positions for a long time, just staring at the opposite wall, yet their minds were still flogged, those pages contained both of their worst memories and it was hard to stay grounded since the only person that could keep them grounded, was also lost in their heads. 

Several hours later, a soft knock on the door slightly pulled Neil from his reverie. He was too exhausted to even reach for an imaginary gun under the pillows, if his father appeared and threatened to kill him, he would let him.

“Guys?” A familiar voice asked softly, worry obvious in the voice. 

Neil took a minute to get himself together, remind himself where he was. His father was dead, as well as Lola, he was with his family, the foxes and they would never ever hurt him, he was in a bed with Andrew, his something, his home.

Neil turned to look at said man, the blonde had not had a reaction to the knock, he just laid on his back as he stared at the ceiling, his eyes far away, lost in his own reverie of thoughts and memories. Andrew had his most potent mask on, the one Neil hated the most, the one Andrew had whenever his memories fogged his mind so much it was like he was a statue, he would just lay in the bed and wouldn’t acknowledge anything surrounding him unless someone tried to invade his space. It was like he was sleeping and awake at the same time.

As gently and slowly as possible, Neil got out of the bed and walked towards the door, opening it slightly to see who was on the other side.

“Neil? What’s wrong? Are you alright?” The voice, Nicky, worried.

“I’m fi-” Neil stopped himself before finishing his sentence. With a sigh, he held his index finger as if saying ‘wait a minute’. Neil gently closed the door and rummaged through his stuff for the batch of paper that had caused them this state of troubled mood. He walked back to the door and barely opened it, soundlessly he gave the batch of papers to Nicky. “We read the six pages that are on the top” Neil stated with no more explanation as he closed the door.

He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it, he’s not as lost in his own mind as he was minutes ago, but he feels physically and emotionally incapable of getting out of the room, especially since Andrew was in a foul mood.   
Neil turned to look at Andrew, when the latter shifted under the covers, the far away look was gone but replaced by a stormy one as he stared back at Neil. There was a small twitch on Andrew’s hands and Neil realized what was happening. 

Andrew's eidetic memory usually took him back to those years when he was physically and sexually abused by his foster families. But sometimes, rarely even, his memory takes him before all of that and it takes him to the years when he was neglected and emotionally abused, the years he was left alone in a room without food or water because he wouldn’t do something or when he would wake up crying from nightmares and had to cry himself back to sleep because no one would be there by his side to help him. 

Thanks to his eidetic memory, Andrew can remember everything in detail, how it looked, how it smelled, how it made him feel. That’s why when he has nightmares of Drake and past abuses, he despises physical contact and will be in a foul mood the whole day, sometimes even weeks. But, when it comes to memories of his first five years of life, he usually needs physical presence since in the past he had craved it and Neil is the one who gives it to him. Some would say that he must be glad for this and prefer these memories from the ones of Drake or Proust, but Neil didn’t. He knew how to help, what to do and what not to do whenever memories of his abuse haunted him, but these, these he didn’t know what to do. On one side, he could give all the physical presence Andrew needed but then, any false move could trigger another memory and might distress him more than he already was.

Neil searched Andrew’s look and saw that the latter was trying really hard to keep an ignorant expression. 

“Yes or no” Neil signed, knowing that Andrew wouldn’t be talking for the day.

“Yes,” Andrew signed back.

Neil lowered himself to lay on the bed as close as possible to Andrew without touching him staring as the storm in the blonde’s eyes started to dissipate. Apparently Andrew didn’t want just physical presence, but physical contact as he rolled to lay his head on Neil’s chest and placed his arms around Neil’s waist -something that surprised Neil since Andrew wouldn’t do it constantly, only under special circumstances- and Neil tensed a little, hesitating on what to do.

The blonde sensed his thoughts and signed “You can touch me, waist up.” 

Neil didn’t hesitate longer and buried his finger against Andrew’s soft hair. Knowing how much Andrew needed this physical contact, he drew patterns on his shoulders with one hand whilst the other massaged his scalp. It didn’t take long for the blonde’s breathing to even and soften as he fell asleep, hopefully into one with no dreams.

Neil could not sleep, it wasn’t the first time they laid together in bed and fell asleep -Usually it was Neil the one that fell asleep. The closest Neil had ever been to a sleeping Andrew was holding hands, yet here they were, Andrew resting on top of Neil whilst the latter continued drawing shapes, letters and numbers, knowing that Andrew would wake up if he stopped.

Andrew’s light snores, even heartbeat and the smell of his shampoo, were enough to take Neil into a sleepy daze. He closed his eyes and gently buried his face into Andrew’s hair, his phone rang against his pant pocket, he gently took it out and checked the caller's ID and saw that the call comes from the hospital Natalie is, he accepted the call right away knowing that Andrew had woken up when the phone started ringing.

“Neil Josten?” A male voice asked through the fone.

“Yes. that would be me,” he answers politely.

“Great, since we now know that you are Natalie’s brother and therefore will be her guardian, we no longer can make decisions regarding tests we want to make her. We have seen great advances in Natalie’s health, therefore we want to discharge her as soon as possible, but we have to test her regarding her development.”

“You need my approval?”

“That’s correct Mr. Josten”

“Do it if you must, do you need me there?”

“Not necessarily, but since Natalie will be in a larger place with doctors she has never seen, it might distress her so it would be nice if you were here. We know how much she trusts you and your boyfriend, I think your presence will be calming and assuring.”

“Alright. So after these tests, when will she be discharged?”

“This test will be done tomorrow afternoon, so either tomorrow after the tests or the morning of the day after the tests”

“Thank you,” Neil said before he hung up.

“What?” Andrew said beside him, clearly in a better mood.

“They wanted to make some final tests on Natalie and since now I am her guardian, they needed my permission to do it. It's tomorrow afternoon, they said that our presence was optional, but that it would help Natalie since her surroundings were going to change. Depending on how the tests go, they will discharge her either tomorrow or the day after.” Neil explained, as he continued to draw against Andrew’s shoulder.

“We need baby stuff,” Andrew said after a moment.

“Yeah. Want to buy them today or tomorrow? Or do you want her to sleep between us?”

Andrew hummed as he thought about it, “Let’s buy them today.”

“Alright, but you know that there is no way that Nicky will not go right? He might even push the others to go to” Andrew groaned.

“Yes or no?” He asked, turning to look at Neil’s lips.

“Yes” He breathed out and kissed Andrew fiercely. 

“Hey!” Nicky exclaimed when they got out of bed. “You guys better now?”

“Yeah we are,” Neil replied with a small smile.

“Alright, do you want to eat something? I can cook or we could order,” Neil prompted but Neil shook his head.

“It would be a waste of time.”

“Why? Neil you ha-” Kevin began before Andrew cut him off.

“We are all going shopping.” Andrew stated as he grabbed his car keys and headed for the door. Aaron, Kevin, Nicky, Abby and Wymack turned to look expectantly at Neil.

“We received a call from the hospital, Natalie will be discharged soon so we need temporary baby stuff before the girls and Matt get here,” Neil explains. Nicky squeaks and ran to get changed whereas Kevin walked with Aaron to their bedrooms as he talks about which mattress is better for one’s back.

“We are going to clean up some space for whatever you guys need, and when you guys are back at the fox tower, you can leave them here, we are up for babysitting” Abby offers with a smile.

“Thank you,” he replies trying not to show how much he appreciates this. As always, mama Abby noticed and was about to tell something to Neil when Nicky came out of his bedroom.

“Who’s ready for a baby shopping spree!” Nicky yells, earning a small groan from Neil, oh this was going to end so well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, its pretty short but I had quite a writer's block and couldn't get around it for a while, so if next week I only post once, don't be surprised.
> 
> As always, Kudos and comments are welcomed and appreciated.
> 
> If you wanna talk to me, my ig is thisisnotourlasthunt_
> 
> Bye, read you soon!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some monsters bonding time, Natalie's tests, and one of the monsters meets Natalie!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mentions of abuse and child neglect and I think that's it.

“Oh my God look at this crib, it's so cute she will look so adorable in it” Nicky said while looking at a purple crib with blue dots.

“No,” Andrew said.

They had been walking around baby shops for the past couple of hours, they had the car seat and the clothes but no crib seemed to satisfy the others and both Neil and Andrew were getting exasperated. Kevin would rant for hours about how the crib had to be tall and wide enough the crib had to be for a toddler’s spinal cord, Aaron would use his medical knowledge - he wanted to be a pediatrician, so this served him as practice- to tell them about the benefits of a convertible crib and how they had to angle the mattress so that she could rest better and how it would help with her general health. Nicky inspected the cribs because he wanted the cutest and fashionable one out there -which often caused him to go to those beds in various shapes, cars, castles, sports themed, there even was an exy themed (which made Neil and Kevin a bit jealous, they wanted an exy themed bed too!)- but no crib seemed to please them. Yes, that they could just pick one and get out of there but since they brought them instead of leaving them at Abby’s and they have absolutely no idea what to buy, they put up to it.

Neil was ready to tell them that they should just go, when his eyes wandered to a crib on his left, unconsciously, he walked towards it and stared. The crib was a dark shade of gray and the tag said it was convertible from a baby crib to a daybed, but that wasn’t what caught his eyes. It was the way it was displayed. The bedsheet had a pattern of tiny orange fox paws, the covers had drawings of foxes and the pillow cases were orange.

“Junkie,” Andrew muttered behind him, before he could reply, the others rushed to them. Nicky squealed the second he saw it, Kevin nodded in contentment after inspecting it and Aaron nodded when he read the tag.

“This one, this one is perfect” Nick states receiving nods from everyone except Andrew.

They called over an employee and paid for the whole crib, sheets, blankets and pillows. It ended up being much more expensive than Neil thought it would be, so he tried to pay it himself just to be stopped by the rest of the group.

“Coach texted us saying that he would pay for all of it, since this crib would stay at his and Abby’s house, it would only be just if he also paid it.” Nicky stated as he passed Wymack’s credit card to the cashier.

“But-” Neil began before Andrew’s gaze cut him off. Neil sighed and saw as the card got processed and the cashier gave them the receipt.

It took a great effort to place all of what they bought into the maserati’s trunk without damaging it, but it was possible. They had decided that the car seat would be used in the bus or in Wymack’s car. While in the Maserati, one of them would hold her. It probably wasn’t the safest, but they had no other choice so they would make it work.

By the time they got back at Wymack’s, they were exhausted and just wanted to go to bed, so they left the shopping bags in the living room deciding that they would install it in the morning and got ready for bed. After the bad morning, Neil didn’t know if Andrew would prefer for him to sleep on the couch or with him on the bed, so Neil decided that the couch was the safest 

After changing into his pyjamas, Neil headed for the bedroom’s door, but a firm grip on his wrist stopped him. He turned to look at the hazel eyes of the boy that had stopped him from leaving. 

_ You sure?  _ He asked with a look at Andrew’s hand grabbing his, then at the bed and finally at Andrew’s hazel eyes.

Andrew narrowed his eyes and gave him a deathly look  _ If I wasn’t I wouldn’t have stopped you, idiot. _

Neil nodded and let himself be pulled into the bed by Andrew, who scooted in the bed until his back was pressed against the wall and pulled Neil to the empty space of the bed beside him. They went to bed, hands still intertwined, and if they unconsciously scooted closer to each other whilst they slept and woke up spooning, neither of them mentioned it.

  
  


The next morning, Neil and Andrew started putting together the crib but halfway there, Nicky scowled at them for starting without him - they hadn’t gotten much done, putting together a crib at seven am was hard - and grabbed the instructions from where it was laying on the floor. Not long after Nicky came to help, Aaron and Kevin helped too whilst Wymack and Abby carefully washed the new clothes and sheets. 

It was an interesting image, Neil had thought that the other ‘monsters’ wouldn’t care for Natalie, or at least wouldn’t until they met her, but here they were, concentrated as they put together a crib as a team. Aaron and Nicky would read the instructions, Kevin would look for the pieces whilst Andrew and Neil screwed them together. It didn’t take them long for the crib to be done and both Neil and Andrew had to leave for the hospital.

“How are we going to present her to the other foxes?” Neil asked.

“One by one” Andrew replied.

“Yeah, we could take one of them to the hospital and meet them in the car after the tests and meet the others here” Neil shrugged and Andrew hummed in response.

“Nicky first” Andrew said after a minute of silence.

“I’m going off to Katelyn!” Aaron yelled. “It's her nephew’s birthday party.” And with that the front door closed with a thud.

“Alright then, we take Nicky with us but he will wait in the car, we meet Kevin, Wymack and Abby here and I guess she will meet Aaron and Katelyn either later today or tomorrow” Neil deducted as he finished getting the diaper bag they had bought ready.

Instead of responding, Andrew walked to the living room and called Nicky over. At Nicky’s confused glance, Neil told him what they had planned and Nicky nodded with a smile as they reached the car.

One hour later, they finally arrived at the hospital, Nicky was vibrating with excitement and kept talking to himself on how he would gain Natalie’s confidence and even try to make her smile. They left him in the main lobby and told him not to get lost, or they would leave him there, and made their way to the pediatric unit. When they approached the nurses station, a nurse told them that Natalie was in another room waiting for her test. Neil thanked her and walked to where the nurse had told them. As they opened the door, they noticed that Natalie sat on one side of the room, looking scared and was holding the fox as if her life depended on it. It didn’t take them long to know why she was scared, the place was full of colors and noises, there was a tv with a kids tv show in loud volume and there were other toddlers around the room yelling and playing with noisy toys.

At the sound of the door Natalie and a few children looked up, it took seconds for Natalie to realize who they were and hurriedly she got on fours and crawled fastly to them and carefully stood up, lifting her tiny arms. It was the first time they'd seen her moving on their own so they stood still for the time she approached them and then some seconds after she reached them, but as soon as they shook the shock from their minds, Neil lowered and picked Natalie up. 

As soon as her body touched Neil’s chest, she buried her face into the crook of his neck and lifted a hand towards Andrew, who took it and rubbed circles against it with his thumb. If it wasn’t because her face was so close to Neil’s neck so he could feel the warm tears as they ran through her face and the fact that she was shaking slightly, he wouldn’t have noticed she was crying. 

There was a tightness in Neil’s chest, the fact that Natalie had to learn at a really young age how to hold tears and when she could finally let them out, it had to be as quietly as possible so that no one else could hear her and therefore hurt her, sent Neil’s blood to boiling point.

Neil turned to look at Andrew, certain that he had come to the same conclusion as Neil had, and when he saw the blonde’s eyes, they were darkened and was looking at Natalie in a protective sort of them.

“Hey,” he said to call the blonde’s attention, it took a while but the blonde finally turned his darkened eyes to Neil. “We’ve got her, she’s safe now. No one will hurt her ever again.” Neil lifted a hand and reached for Andrew’s and when he gave it to him, he gave it a tight squeeze.

Right at that moment, a dark skinned woman with curly hair and her black eyes were covered by a pair of glasses entered the room with a smile.

“Good evening Mr.Josten and Mr. Minyard, my name is Dr. Jane Gray and I’m in charge of Natalie’s last test!” She said cheerfully. “Follow me to my office please - hello Richie! - Please take a seat.” She gestured to the two chairs in front of her toy filled desk. “So, in today’s test, we will see Natalie’s development and her social skills. The FBI told me a bit of her past living situation and I think we should see what she still can’t do and find a way to help her.”

Dr. Gray spent the next ten minutes explaining how they would do the tests and how would she find the results. By the time she was done, Natalie was calmed enough to take her face away from Neil’s neck and was silently playing with both Andrew and her fox. Neil would have said something but he saw the tension in Andrew’s shoulders, neither of them liked hospitals, but it was much harder for Andrew since he was still raw from the nightmares of the day before. Besides, Neil thought that this was better than Andrew’s memory getting filled by Dr. Gray’s squeaky voice.

They started with Natalie’s development, Dr. Gray took them to a much quieter and small room, Neil noticed there was a two-way glass on the right side of the room, Neil looked curiously at the doctor so she told Neil to sit Natalie on the carpet in the middle of the room and to wait outside, she assured them that she would be alright and gave them directions to a room where they could see what was happening through the two-way glass.

The first test consisted in her motor skills, the doctor made her grab a ball and turn it in circles in her hands, placing shaving cream on the table and rubbing it until it disappeared - to Natalie’s amazement. Soon, they discovered that Natalie could sit, crawl and stand on her own, but when it came to walking, she would not do it. The doctor tried to get her to walk but she started tearing up, so they stopped at that moment and went back to the shaving cream which made Natalie happy again. Natalie also would not talk, but they had expected it, she had made no noise during the whole test. 

The first test took at least an hour, but they still had to see her social skills. Dr. Gray explained that normally, they would take Natalie to the waiting room and see how she was around other children her age, but she had seen how rattled Natalie had been after spending some minutes there so they would not force her into doing that again. So, she was going to try something easier and much more comfortable for Natalie, but she would need both Andrew and Neil for this. For the first part of the test, a nurse, Natalie had never met before,would enter the room and sit in front of her and see what Natalie did. For the second part, both Neil and Andrew would enter the room with another nurse and compare the results.

As the first nurse entered the room and silently sat in front of Natalie letting her examine, a thought came to Neil’s head and he turned to Andrew, who, not for the first time, seemed to have read Neil’s head and nodded.

“Does it have to be a nurse?” Neil asked the doctor as he turned to stare at her.

“Not necessarily, why?” Dr. Gray asked.

“Andrew’s cousin came with us, he is waiting in the lobby, if it's alright I can call him over.”

“Sure, you can call him over, I’ll tell the nurses to let him in. What’s his name?”

“Nicholas, or Nicky Hemmick,” Andrew replied, the nurse nodded and exited the room whilst Neil called Nicky.

“Hey boy! How’s everything going up there? Are you almost dome? I found this-” Nicky began before Neil cut him off.

“We need you to come upstairs Nicky”

“Oh, sure, what’s going on? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, they want to see her social skills and wanted to call a nurse in to meet her, but then I remembered you were here so we are using you as a prop for this test”

“Well, I just hope I do well as a prop then. What room is it I’m going to?”

“Just walk to the nurses station, they’ll tell you”

“Alright, see ya”

“See ya” Neil said and hung up.

Minutes later, Andrew stayed in the two-way mirror, obviously not trusting the nurse that talked slowly and sweetly to Natalie, who looked a bit scared whilst Neil and Dr. Gray met with an over excited Nicky at Dr. Gray’s office, where she explained Nicky what he had to do. Nicky seemed to be too ecstatic to actually listen and process what she was telling him, but he nodded anyways. 

They waited for five minutes and after seeing that Natalie was slightly more comfortable, yet not trusting in a trusting way, with the nurse, Dr. Linton called her over and both of them made their way to the two-way mirror whilst talking about Natalie’s behavior. 

“Don’t mess up,” Andrew whispered at Nicky as they opened the door.

At the sight of them, Natalie sat a bit straighter but buried her face in the fox’s head when she saw Nicky, Neil smiled at Natalie when she looked at him. Nicky sat in front of her cross legged as Neil and Andrew turned and left the room. When they got back to the two-way mirror, Dr. Gray and the nurse were done talking and were watching how Natalie took Nicky in, watching what he did. 

Thankfully, Nicky had enough experience with the foxes and knew better than to initiate physical contact and surprisingly, he didn’t say a word - though Neil could see how badly he wanted to burst out and play with her. It felt like ages had passed when Natalie, surprising everyone, gave her fox to Nicky and gave him a tiny smile. Neil saw how Nicky’s shoulder lowered as he let out a breath and he shakily took the fox to his hands, careful not to actually touch her, and played with it.

Natalie seemed to grow a bit bored and pointed to the can of shaving cream, shyly. Nicky said something silently to her and she slightly nodded her head once. Nicky carefully reached for it and placed a bit on the table beside them and immediately, she began to rub it in. Neil made a mental note to buy shaving cream for her since she seemed to like to play with it.

Five minutes later, Natalie started slowing down and started blinking heavily so Dr. Gray decided to finish the test and let her take a much earned nap whilst she examined the test results. As soon as they entered the room, she lifted her arms for him to carry her. He scooped her up and took the fox from besides Nicky and gave it to her, within seconds she rested her head on Neil’s head and fell asleep. Nicky made a soft muffled voice and when Neil saw him, he had both of his hands over his mouth trying hard not to make a single noise that could wake her up.

“Alrighty then,” Dr. Roberts said quietly once the three men had settled in her office, Natalie still asleep on Neil’s arms. “Natalie has no delay in her motor skills, seeing what and where she lived, it is obvious she might have some issues here and there. I’d say it would be best if you could take her to a speech therapist, the doctor will be able to give you much more information on how to get her talking than I could. As for the walking issue, we saw that she got really distressed by it so you could see a me or a different psychologist for it and try to get her to walk, if you prefer another psychologist, please give me her contact so I can send her my findings. Besides that, she is perfectly fine and if you’d like, I can sign her off and you can take her home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Im BACK! Sorry it took me a while to write this chapter, busy week + I didn't know how to write this part, but I think it went well.
> 
> Also, I knoooow the story is starting slowly, but I promise it gets interesting.   
> Lets just say that court will be involved.
> 
> As always, Kudos and Comments are appreciated and if you want to talk to me, my instagram is: @thisisnotourlasthunt_
> 
> Stay safe and have a great day <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natalie meets Kevin, Wymack and Abby, some sweetness and one of the foxes has a cute moment with Natalie.
> 
> TW: mentions of abuse, Nathan, Drake.
> 
> I think that's it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I have a hard time knowing how to write the foxes but I think I did a good job??? Anyways, I hope you like it.
> 
> Btw, English is not my first language and I have no Betas so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes.

It took them over three hours to get everything set for Natalie to leave the hospital, the hospital’s papers were easy, they gave them a list of vitamins and a diet for Natalie, what had them stuck at the hospital was that they had to wait for the FBI and the DCF agent to give them the green light. Since the situation was too sudden and for obvious reasons foster care was out of the question, there were two options left, Neil or witness protection program, but since it was already confirmed that Neil was Natalie’s half-brother, Neil was the only option. 

The DCF agent spent an hour talking to Neil and Andrew about some legal things they’ll have to do whilst Nicky stayed with Natalie in her room. The agent basically told them that they’d have monthly visits at their dorm to ensure that everything was going according to what was needed for Natalie’s care. If these were not taken care of, they’d have to take Natalie away and place her into the witness protection program and therefore they would never see her again.

Finally, they were able to go back home around three pm. They took everything the doctors gave them and thanked them, especially Dr.Roberts. They walked to the car and went to their seats, Andrew would be driving, Nicky in shotgun and Neil carrying Natalie in the backseat. Since Natalie was still not accustomed to bright sunlight, she had to use special sunglasses so that her eyes wouldn’t hurt, but feeling Natalie taking a hitched breath and how she hides her face in Neil’s neck, he knows that it still hurts a little. Neil hates it, Natalie is in pain and he can't do anything to ease it. When her eyes became accustomed to these sunglasses, they would have to buy other ones with less polarization and UV protection, so it would hurt her again. All he could do now, was help her through it.

They arrived back at Abby’s and Wymack’s a few minutes later. Nicky got out of the car as quick as possible, probably to tell Abby what happened at the hospital whilst Andrew got the baby bag out and Neil tried to get out of the car. 

When they were inside, Abby was at the kitchen beginning to cook dinner and both Wymack and Kevin were at the living room watching some exy. Deciding that the best idea was to go to Abby first, Neil gently peeled Natalie’s head from his neck, took her glasses off, since now they were inside and walked to the kitchen.

“Hey Abby, this is Natalie,” Neil said calmly as if he were talking to an adult rather than a two almost three year old. “Natalie, this is Abby.”

“Hello Natalie, it's nice to finally meet you. Is that a fox plushie?” Abby laughed and quite surprisingly, Natalie nodded and presented her the fox which Abby accepted with a smile, which Natalie returned making Abby smile wider. Neil now knew that for Natalie, showing her fox to someone was like accepting them and knowing that they would not try to do something bad for her. In some way it was like when Neil trusted someone with his secrets, he knew that whoever he gave these to, that person would not try to use them against his. It was like saying ‘I trust you.’

Unsurprisingly, it took Natalie harder to present her fox to both Kevin and Wymack. At first, she was a bit scared of the tall and wide grown men, when she first saw them, she instantly went back into hiding in Neil’s neck. Neither men were bothered by it, they actually had expected it and knowing better than to try and touch or talk directly to her, they just acted normally to let her know that she had no reason to be afraid. It did work, by the time all of them went to the dining table for dinner, she gave them both her fox.

The whole time, Neil was more focused on how she would act towards the others, rather than the fact that now they had Natalie everyday, the whole day, but those thoughts came as him and Andrew got Natalie ready for bed. 

_ Will he be like his father when he gets mad?  _

_ Will he be the reason she has too vivid nightmares?  _

_ Will he get so angry that he’ll burn her skin and cut her leaving scars that will mark her body forever?  _

Memories from Nathan’s tortures clouded his mind. He could still feel the hot iron as it was placed over his shoulder. He could still feel the sharp ends of the knives as it slashed his skin and blood flowed through the wound. When the bullet his father shot at him, aiming to kill but it didn’t. The memories were far too present, far too real for him to escape his thoughts.

_ “Neil”  _ a voice said beside him, but Neil couldn’t figure out who was saying it. 

Was he really Neil? Was his father really dead? Nathan could have faked it, Nathan has the power to do anything, he could still be alive and planning a way to take revenge against Neil. He had to run, he had to get out of there as fast as possible or Nathan would-

_ “Abram!”  _ A voice, no,  _ Andrew _ said beside him. Neil took a minute to remember who he was and remind himself that yes, his father was dead.

“Sorry,” he muttered, which caused Andrew to shoot him a dark look Neil knew it meant that he shouldn’t say ‘sorry’ because it wasn’t his fault before turning back to where Andrew was changing Natalie into her pajamas.

One thing they noted from Natalie was that she slept better when she first fell asleep against someone’s chest, but the doctor had told them that they should slowly get rid of this habit, but since it was her first day home, Andrew and Neil cuddled together with Natalie over them until she fell asleep.

By the time they finally placed her on the crib, Neil was still not fully away from his memories so they told Kevin, since he was the only one at the living room, that they would go to the roof for a while. Kevin knew them both enough to know not to ask about it, and just nodded.

Neil opened the door at the roof top and turned to look at Andrew, knowing that the blonde had both of their cigarettes ready. He walked over to the edge of the roof and stared at the cars below them and took a deep breath as he sat down, dangling his legs over the edge. He felt rather than saw, when Andrew sat next to him, looking ahead. They stayed in that position for a long time until Andrew finally broke the silence.

“We are not like them,” Andrew deadpanned.

Neil didn’t need Andrew to explain, he knew what he meant. They were not like Nathan, Lola, Neil’s mom, Drake, Cass and anyone else that had caused them pain during their childhoods. Neil knew this, but there still was that horrible feeling that he might turn to be like Nathan.

“I know,” Neil whispered, he took a deep breath and brought his knees against his chest. “It's just. I have this horrible thought that if I get mad at her, I’ll be just like my father and will hurt her. What if I turn to be like my dad and leave scars against her body?” Neil confessed his worries.

“I had always been wary of the idea of taking care of children,” Andrew admitted suddenly, Neil didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t have to because Andrew continued. “Most of my foster families were shitty, some more than others, and I always believed that if I ever had a child under my care, I would be like them. But I see Natalie and I can’t imagine myself punching her, kicking her, call her names or even rape her. Instead, I want to protect her against this world that fucked us both. Neil, I want you to think about this, do you see yourself burning her with a hot iron or slashing her with a knife?”

“No!” Neil didn’t even have to think about it, he couldn’t see himself slashing or burning her pale skin. Andrew looked at him with a look that clearly said  _ ‘see?’  _ Neil closed his eyes and took a deep breath, promising to himself that he would never be like Nathan. “Yes or no?” He asked.

“Yes” Andrew replied, yet their mouths were already close enough for Neil to feel Andrew’s breath.

They shared kisses for a long time, around midnight they stood up and walked back to the inside of the house, which was weirdly quiet. Normally, at this time both Abby and Wymack were already in bed, but the others would still be awake and making noise. Feeling queasy, they walked to the living room and the scene they had in front of them, surprised them both.

Nicky was quietly taking pictures at a sleeping Kevin who had a sleeping Natalie on his chest. Nicky finally realised they were there, and signaled them to the kitchen and at Andrew’s questioning look, Nicky explained.

“Some minutes after you left for the roof, I was talking with Erick when Natalie woke up crying and didn’t stop for a long while. Thinking you might need help, I got out of my room and hurried to your bedroom. That’s when I saw Kevin trying to calm her down, but she was  _ not  _ having it, she was lifting her arms trying to get Kevin to carry her. But dear Kevin didn’t realize this until I told him -you should have seen his face-. Awkwardly, he took her in his arms and walked to the living room. I went back to my room for a few minutes to say goodbye to Erick and next thing I know, I find them both asleep on the couch,” Nicky whispered excitedly.

Neil felt a tightness in his chest, Natalie had been welcomed into the family so quickly and he knew no one would let her get hurt, even Natalie had trusted them to show her fox, besides Nicky, Kevin, Wymack and Abby, the only other person she had shown her fox to, was Dr. Robins, no other than her. 

Neil walked out of the kitchen and walked towards the two sleeping bodies in the couch and gently took Natalie from Kevin’s grasp, thanking that the taller striker had a deep sleep. Neil gently placed Natalie back at her crib, covered her beneath the blankets and gently stroked her red hair. 

“Welcome home,” he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't that sweet?  
> I really love Kevin and my boy deserves some happiness, also, just wanted to let you know that I truly love Neil&Kevin friendship, so we will see plenty of bro moments in this fic.
> 
> As always, thanks to everyone that comments, subscribes, leaves kudos, reads. It makes my day :)
> 
> Also, I'd advise you to subscribe because I used to have a posting schedule, but now I'm just posting whenever I feel like writing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first night with Natalie, some Dadmack and Neil, Andrew and Natalie and obviously Neil and Andrew
> 
> TW: Mentions of abuse and neglect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok ok, as always, I'm sorry for any mistakes or if something doesn't add up, I dont have a beta so...
> 
> Also, sorry for disappearing for a while, have been busy with school + I was sick but here's chapter 10!

The first night, Andrew and Neil found themselves more awake than asleep, every once in a while, Natalie would wake up and start crying -quietly, but it could still be heard in the living room- and wouldn’t fall back asleep until they rocked her. When she woke them up for what it felt like the hundredth time at four am, they were too tired to carry her back to her crib so they arranged themselves to fit Natalie between them, careful so that neither of them were touching her sleeping form and vice versa. Neil closed his eyes and let sleep come his way, even if it was just for a few hours.

The next time Neil woke up, it was not due to a toddler crying, but to the sound of birds chirping outside the window. Without opening his eyes, he focused on the sounds around him, he could hear the birds chirping loudly in the distance, a rustling in the house, Neil supposed it was Wymack -that man was always awake before anyone else and wondered if he had been able to sleep with Natalie’s cries- and beside him, he could hear two sets of soft snores beside him, one of them softer than the other. 

Neil opened his eyes to inspect the sight in front of him, Andrew’s face had a calm and soft expression, his lips twitching in his sleep. Neil turned his gaze downward to watch Natalie’s sleeping form, and at that moment he knew that despite his worries and the memory of his father’s abuse, he was glad Natalie is with them, safe. Gently, he ran his fingers through Natalie’s curly, red hair. He is so relaxed that he slowly starts to drift off, but the moment his fingers stopped moving against her head, Natalie shifted in her sleep. 

As gently as possible, so that neither of the two sleeping bodies beside him woke up from the movement, he lifted Natalie and lays her against his chest, she stopped moving immediately. The movement woke Andrew up, but he just opened his eyes, looked at Neil and Natalie, and scooted closer to Neil and Natalie, not exactly touching, but Neil still felt the heat radiating from him, before closing his eyes again, Neil smiled and also closed his eyes, letting sleep take over him.

  
  


A couple of hours later, Neil woke up again, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep a second time. Carefully, as not to wake any of them, he turned and looked over at the two sleeping figures laying in the bed with him and smiled, oh he was getting soft. Moving as slowly as he could, Neil grabbed his phone and checked the time, seeing that it was only eight am, he decided that a small run wouldn’t hurt much, he normally would run from six to eight, but a later one didn’t hurt anyone. He sat up, careful not to wake the finally sleeping Natalie, and started to stand up to carry her to the crib when a groggy voice stopped him.

“Leave her here,” Andrew says behind him. 

“You sure?” Neil asked as he turned to face Andrew, who was moving to a sitting position.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep, and she seems to only sleep when one of us is holding her, and she hasn’t slept much,” the bond replied, his bored expression unmoving. “Take your phone.” He added.

Knowing that Andrew was being serious, Neil gently lowered Natalie into Andrew’s chest, she stirred for a second but stayed asleep. When they were both sure that Natalie would stay asleep, Neil started getting ready for his run whilst Andrew put his reading glasses on and grabbed the book he was reading with one hand and opened it where he had left it and started reading. Neil took the phone from where it was charging and placed it on his back pocket.

When Neil was done getting ready, he walked over to Andrew, and after the blonde nodded the silent request, he gave him a quick peck on the lips and headed towards the door of the bedroom.

Neil silently walked out of the room, checking if anyone was awake, all the doors were closed but Neil could still hear noise coming from the kitchen. Neil would be a little startled if he didn’t know that Wymack was always the first one to wake up, and as he entered the kitchen, his suspicions were true. Wymack was leaning against the kitchen counter, some files in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

“Morning,” Neil said as he made a toast before running.

“Morning, how was your first night?” Wymack asked as he laid the file on the counter and turned to pay full attention to Neil.

“She woke us up so many times throughout the night, we let her fall asleep on our laps and then carried her to the crib, one or two hours later, she would wake us up crying and we had to repeat the process until four am until we gave up and let her sleep in the bed with us,” Neil somewhat complained with Wymack. He wasn’t mad that he couldn’t sleep because of Natalie, but mad at himself for not finding a way for her to understand that she was safe and that no one would come hurt her in the middle of the night. 

Wymack hummed in affirmation, took a sip of his coffee and placed it on the counter before taking a slow step forward to Neil, he slowly placed a hand against Neil’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. If this were to happen two years ago, Neil would have been scared out of his mind and would have probably bolted from the room, but Neil knew Wymack and knew that he would never hurt him like his father did, no matter how angry he was, he would never hurt him. 

“Give her some time alright? It’s not your fault that she can’t sleep alone in bed, but you can be there for her as she gets used to this new life,” Wymack reassured Neil. The latter felt a pang on his chest, Wymack had become more than just a coach for Neil, he was the father figure Neil had never seen before, the one his six year old self had wanted to have and over the past year, Neil had let himself open up to Wymack and the latter had welcomed it with wide acceptance, never pushing Neil too much and waiting for Neil to tell him whatever he had in mind.

“Thank you” he replied softly and truthfully.

“Whatever. Now, take advantage of this last couple of hours before she wakes up.” Wymack nodded to the door and took a sip of his coffee.

“Alright. If Andrew gets up to give her food, remind him that she can’t drink chocolate milk or eat too much sugar,” Neil called before getting out to the front porch.

****

If you’d ask a fifteen year old Andrew what he saw himself doing in his early twenties, having a child  _ asleep  _ on his chest in a bed alone, was not something he could imagine, yet there he was, gently rubbing circles around Natalie’s back as he questioned his life decisions. 

He had always been wary of taking care of little children, memories of those who had damaged him in his early years had made him believe that he would not be a good caregiver. But sitting there, watching how Natalie’s chest went up and down with every breath she took. 

When he had heard Neil saying that Nathan had another sibling, he had been more focused on the fact that Neil had almost run away and that he didn’t actually think about it until him and Neil heard a bit of her story and they were right in front of her thin and pale sickly body. He had remembered all the people that had mistreated him, forcing him to go to bed without eating and with a hurting back from a puch they had given him. But that had started when he was five and the barely a toddler in his chest had seen and gone through a lot, learned how to cry as softly as possible so that no one that didn’t pay much attention couldn’t hear her, probably stopped talking because if they heard her, they would hurt her, had a thing against walking which was either her or her mother had been hurt for it and the only person that protected her had suffered a lot worse died protecting her against hunger.

Reading those entries had been hell, how he abused her and got her pregnant was disgusting and it brought him many memories and unpleasant thoughts. How many women out there had gotten pregnant for rape? How many of them actually wanted to keep the child? How Many of them didn’t? 

Before his spiraling thoughts could go further, Natalie started moving and making soft whimpering noises as she woke up. Quickly, he glanced at the clock and seeing it had been an hour and a half since Neil left, he realized that Natalie was probably hungry so he let her wake up normally. It took her a couple of seconds until she finally opened her blue eyes and met Andrew’s gaze. 

It was at that moment that Andrew realized how Neil and her were similar. They both looked at him lovingly as if he were the only one in the world. The two sets of blue eyes that Andrew had now written as safety and love. The shade of blue that whenever he saw something of that color he wanted to buy it and actually did it. In the past he didn’t have a favorite color, the idea of a color bringing some type of joy to someone had been stupid in his opinion but now, whenever he saw the blue shade that matched Neil’s eyes, and now also Natalie’s, it made him remember the kisses, touches, smiles, truths,  _ love.  _

Surprising himself, he smiled at her and sat up, adjusting her so she was sitting on his lap, and gave her a small kiss on her forehead,

“Let’s go find some breakfast,” he said and stood up as Natalie silently giggled at the small show of affection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you think and if its your first time reading this fic, dont forget to leave kudos!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Never leave a child with someone who loves dress up and an Exy obsessed man, some twinyards and someone's getting real close with Natalie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings for this one if I'm not wrong.
> 
> Me at the beginning of writing this: Imma write this chapter and have a big twinyard moment.
> 
> Me in the middle of writing this: Is Abby Neil's mother figure? YES
> 
> Still has some twinyard stuff I guess

Neil ran for about two hours and when he got back to Wymack’s and Abby’s the first thing he sensed was the smell of bacon and eggs. Heading to his room, he looked over at the kitchen and was surprised at seeing Andrew cooking breakfast, alone. He walked to the kitchen and settled against the counter beside Andrew and eyed him as he turned the bacon to its other side.

“Hey,” Neil said after a minute, he received a nod of acknowledgement in return. “Where’s Natalie?” 

“Nicky,” Andrew stated and Neil was surprised by the statement. Nicky was, well... he got too excited for everything and Natalie still didn’t know much of this new life for her. “Relax, Kevin’s there too,” Andrew added seemingly reading Neil’s thoughts.

“Relax? Really? I mean, we bought clothes for her yesterday and Nicky will want to dress her in every piece of clothing he bought. And Kevin, will most likely be giving her some exy balls and a racket so ‘she can be ready for the future’. Also, why didn’t you leave her with Wymack or Abby?” Neil said as he grabbed a piece of bacon and bit into it.

“That won’t happen,” Andrew said confidently, Neil gestured to him to elaborate and Andrew did. “It won’t happen because Nicky won’t let Kevin put her near anything exy related and Kevin won’t let Nicky overwhelm her by too many clothes changes. I would have left them with them but Wymack had to leave for the court and Abby’s still asleep.”

Neil knew Andrew was probably right since it was the most obvious situation so he nodded in agreement and headed back to his, Andrew’s and now Natalie’s shared rooms. As he passed Nicky and Aaron’s room (Aaron spent many nights at Katelyn’s and Nicky was constantly in Germany for summer and christmas vacations that this was the best idea they had, the one time Erick had come to South Carolina both he and Nicky stayed in a hotel because they... well.. You know… they... hadn’t seen each other in months so… yeah, let’s go back to the fic), Neil heard some hushed voices and soft giggles coming from the inside, he didn’t know what to think from that so he just kept walking to his room and took a warm bath, to untense his sore muscles and relieve some tension out of his body.

He got out of the shower and wrapped the towel around his waist and got out to change. He put on Andrew’s team hoodie and his own sweatpants. They weren’t going to do much that day so comfortable clothes seemed perfect for staying at the house and watch some movies. Nicky had been talking about watching more Disney movies now that Natalie was here. 

Finishing getting ready, he went to the door, exited the room and went back to the kitchen table to eat. Unsurprisingly, Andrew sat there, a book in hand, eating his plate of food and on the chair beside him sat another plate of food that was clearly Neil’s. 

“Thanks,” Neil said as he sat down on the table and ate his breakfast receiving a hum from the blonde beside him.

A few minutes later of uncommon silence, both Kevin and Nicky approached the kitchen table with happy expressions (Nicky had a wide, proud smile and Kevin looked happy with himself) which, made Neil feel a bit uneasy, it was known that Kevin and Nicky were good friends, but they almost never agree with one another and knowing that they had been alone with Natalie didn’t add up well. Nicky whispered-shout a ‘yes’ and ran back from where he was coming from and he came back humming a melody, as if a king was entering the room, with his back to them.

“May I present to you, the fox's new Mascot!” Nicky exclaimed as he turned to face them. 

In his arms he was carrying a smiling Natalie wearing an orange onesie with a huge white oval on the chest, on the back there was a tail and the hoodie had a fox face and ears. Natalie had her fox in one hand and was waving it in front of herself as if to show them that she looked like the fox and an exy ball on the other hand. 

Neil raised his eyebrows and turned to look at Andrew who had wide eyes in amusement. He had been so sure that Natalie wouldn’t be part of a dress-up session or would be near anything exy related since the two persons he left to take care of her were totally opposites, he hadn’t thought about them agreeing with each other.

“Not gonna happen huh?” Neil teased, Andrew flipped him off.

“What was not supposed to happen?” Nicky asked as he moved Natalie’s weight to his hip.

“This,” Andrew said, signaling Natalie, with no further explanation. 

Before anyone could say anything else, the front door opened and from it entered Aaron and Katelyn. Natalie had been more interested in the two objects in her hands that she didn’t see the two new people entering the room until Katlyn let out a tiny squeak. Natalie looked over at them for a second before leaning out of Nicky’s hold to reach Neil, who figured it would happen, had pushed his food aside and took her into his arms in one easy movement. As soon as she was in his arms, Natalie buried her face in the crook of his neck, in an attempt to hide herself.

Neither Aaron or Katelyn took a step forward in her way, somehow knowing that she would have to see that they weren’t a real threat, but they did leave their bags on the floor and Katelyn greeted everyone, even Andrew who nodded in acknowledgement back at her animated ‘hello’.

While everyone did what they usually would do (aka going to the living room and watching some movies), Neil stayed behind after realizing that Natalie’s breathing was gentle and even against his neck, meaning that she had fallen asleep, which gave him the opportunity to think. He had known that she was going to lean on his side as soon as new people came through the door, he had pushed his food away even before she had seen the new people. Looking back, while he was running, he had passed a children’s store and thought about Natalie and what he could buy her. It haven’t been so long ago since they found out about her, much less since they met her and this was their first full day with her, but he had a feeling in his chest that appears every time Natalie smiled or giggled, when she looked up at him as if he was her savior, whenever she looked at Andrew and touched his face with such caution as if she knew he doesn’t like being touched without permission.

He had no idea how to take care of a child, he was still learning how to clean diapers and make a toddler sleep through the night, but he knew that whatever they came across, he would be there to protect her against the devils of the cruel world.

While Natalie took her nap in Neil’s arms, he finished his breakfast and around five minutes later, Abby woke up and came to the kitchen for breakfast. Neil, afraid of moving and causing Natalie to wake up, was still at the table with Andrew who continued reading his book until Abby came to sit on the table. After Abby said how cute Natalie looked with a fox onesie, she and Neil started discussing on what to do when classes started as well as practices and games.

“If I’m not wrong, the university has a daycare for student’s children,” Abby said.

“I don’t know if I trust them, or at least not trust them with her for a whole day,” Neil said as he absentmindedly rubbed circles around Natalie’s back.

“Well, David and I have mornings off so maybe when you get to choose classes, you arrange your calendar so that the majority of classes you take them during the mornings whilst we take care of her and then if you have more classes maybe someone is free and can take care of her or if not, then you leave her in the day care,” Abby offered. 

Neil thought of the past years and how his relationship with Abby had strengthened in the years. His mother had not been tender with him, her main thought had been to run, if he slowed down for whatever reason, she would yank his hair or beat him so that he moved faster. The only motherly she ever did was to cuddle with him whenever they were cold at night. Hugs and kisses did not exist among them unless they had to act on the streets. Looking back, Neil and Mary had had more like a partnership rather than a mother-son bond. Neil had thought for many years that mothers were like that, but as he grew older and saw many mothers hug their children or kiss their cheeks as they left for school. But by that time his mother had been too focused on running than to give her son a good childhood. 

The first year Neil met Abby, one of his first things he noticed was her motherly attitude towards the foxes, always caring for them, ready to hear if any had any issue, be there for whatever they needed, be a pillar if they couldn’t stand by themselves. Neil had had a hard time getting used to it, getting used to an older woman caring for him that wanted nothing more than for him to feel safe and loved. 

During Neil’s second year, he had made a silent promise to himself that now that he was free, he would learn what he had been missing in those eight years on the run, one of them being learning to be relaxed and let others shower him in love. The upperclassmen and Nicky loved it, not that they knew of his promise, when they found out that they could ask Neil for a hug and that he would give in (most of the time), they were more than ecstatic to do so and they also learned when  _ not  _ to ask and that if he said ‘no’, they didn’t ask again or ask why if he didn’t tell them (Nicky did whine but never pushed it, it was more for the show). 

During that year, Neil also let Abby close, let her hug him, even kiss him on the cheeks without actually asking first, she had this ‘mother instinct’ and knew when she could and when she shouldn’t do it without asking first. Abby always knew, with only one look at him, when he was having a bad day and would just linger near him, never actually touching. Whenever he got hurt on the court, she would never listen when he said he was fine, would always check if he was really fine.

Abby had somewhat become Neil’s mother figure.

“Thanks,” Neil said honestly, receiving a genuine smile from Abby before excusing herself saying she would be at the kitchen starting lunch.

It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that Natalie shifted in Neil’s arms as she woke up, taking her face out of his neck and turning it so that now it was the back of her head against his neck. Guiding by the small movements he could feel, Neil knew that she had woken up and now her attention was directed to something else, probably Andrew since the latter placed the book he had been reading on the table. It was at that moment that Neil felt something weird and heavy on Natalie’s diaper, and it took a second later until a putrid smell reached his nostrils and that’s when he realized what was happening and he didn’t like it. 

Andrew had been the one in charge of diapers ever since that first day at the hospital, but he had told Neil he better see and learn how to do it cause once she was with them at Palmetto, Neil would have to start changing diapers as well. Neil would’ve loved to say that he did indeed learn how to change a diaper, but being quite honest, more than half of the time he was staring at how soft and careful Andrew was with Natalie. Maybe if he asked nicely and with the promise of anything Andrew might-

“Don’t even think about it,” Andrew deadpanned, Neil carefully turned his head to watch Andrew’s expression and almost chuckled. Andrew was glaring at Neil as he played with Natalie and the fox toy.

“What?” Neil asked, trying to act innocent.

“It’s your turn,” Andrew noted, Neil knew that there was no way he could win this so he just sighed and stood up carefully since his legs were a bit sore from sitting down too long and walked back to his and Andrew’s room. 

Once inside, he grabbed the things he had seen Andrew use whenever he changed Natalie’s diaper, baby talc, wet wipes, baby cream and a clean diaper. Carefully, he lowered Natalie down to the bed and unzipped her onesie so he could take the dirty diaper off. 

It took three to five minutes longer than it would have taken if Andrew were the one to change the diaper, it wasn’t because he was having a hard time remembering how to do it, no, it was because he had forgotten how impatient three year olds could be. The fox and the exy ball, that she now refused to let go, were not enough to keep her occupied, she kept moving and smiling every time Neil made a sound of exasperation, as if it were the funniest thing, but in the end he was able to change the diaper and that was the important thing there.

He exited the room feeling a bit proud of himself and was about to say it to Andrew but as he passed the kitchen, he saw that Abby was silently laughing at something, she turned around and when she met his gaze, she just winked and turned back around. Confused, he walked to the living room where Aaron and Andrew were sitting side by side in the couch wearing the same long sleeve shirt, black pants, white tennis and even the same bored expression as they both looked ahead, like statues-Neil was surprised at how identical they looked, it was the first time since that first day that they looked like exact clones- whilst Nicky, Katelyn and Kevin looked at the twins with such concentration that Neil’s head hurt already.

“What’s going on in here?” He asked.

“Kevin and I made a bet on whether we could identify which twinyard is which,” Nicky said and received two exact grunts in response.

“I already know which is which, and I’m not even playing,” said Katelyn as she took a drink from the cup she was holding. 

“Well, obviously you know, you are dating one of them!” Nicky replied with evident frustration.

Neil also knew which was which, it was pretty easy since it was not the first time he had to recognize the differences, so he just sat down beside Kevin and positioned Natalie so she was sitting on his lap rather than resting her head on Neil’s. She looked over at the twins and furrowed her brows in confusion and looked up to Neil, who was smiling at her reaction, and then back to the twins. Andrew, who was obviously sitting at the right, had the ghost of a smile, the tip of his lips pulled upwards slightly. Neil watched as Natalie seemed to notice the smile because she relaxed into Neil’s chest and turned to Kevin, who was eyeing the twins back and forth trying to find a difference, and wiggled the exy ball she had in her hand trying to catch his attention, and when he didn’t see her, she threw it at him -her still being an almost three year old, the ball didn’t hit him hard, he had had worse on court- to catch his attention, which she gained after a startled jump.

“She’s such a brat like you,” Kevin said towards Neil whilst picking the ball up and giving it back to her, who just threw it back at him again. “Brat,” Kevin repeated, yet this time to Natalie, halfheartedly. 

“I think I got it!” Nicky exclaimed, earning the attention of the room. “Andrew’s at the left side and Aaron at the right. What do you think Kevin?”

Kevin, who was playing some weird game of throw and catch with Natalie, lifted his head at the sound of his name. “Oh, um…” he looked at the twins before turning back to Natalie. “Aaron at the right and Andrew at the left.”

“Wrong,” both twins choroused and were about to stand up but Abby’s question as she came out of the kitchen stopped them.

“Do you think Natalie could know which one’s Andrew?” Abby asked as she leaned on the wall.

Neil honestly thought that she could so carefully he stood up and walked to stand in front of both twins. Natalie looked once to both twins before leaning to the right side, where Andrew took her from Neil’s arms and into his own and almost immediately, she laid her head on Andrew’s shoulder. 

“She does,” Andrew deadpanned to the others in the room, but Neil could see the glint of a smile in Andrew’s eyes as he sat back on the couch.

  
Gosh, they were becoming  _ soft. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know we still don't have a major plot but I promise I have something planned and its a big plot twist but they still have to learn how to do the same stuff they used to do but with a toddler so the main plot will come soon.
> 
> Also, as you might have seen, this work is part of two series, I have so many ideas for this AU with Natalie so why not and so many found family ideas so Imma write them.


End file.
